Neon Genesis Evangelion Evolution: Part II
by sentinel28II
Summary: Gendo and Fuyutsuki look over the Dead Sea Scrolls, and realize something has changed. All is going according to the scenario...but whose scenario? R&R if you like. Note that this is the last chapter of Part II; Part III is on the way!
1. Dust in the Wind

**_NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: EVOLUTION_**

 ** _PART II_**

 ** _An Alternate Universe Evangelion Story_**

 ** _By Sentinel 28II (formerly Sentinel 28)_**

 _AUTHOR'S NOTE: When I began to rewrite_ Neon Genesis Evangelion Evolution: Reborn, _the rewrite/reboot of a story I started back in 2003, I wasn't sure how it would go. It does seem to have generated some interest, which I'm happy to see—judging by the number of private e-mails I've gotten and the views generated by the story. I hope you'll stick with me as we continue the adventures and misadventures of Riana Arashikaze. All is going according to the scenario…_

 _WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE: In the aftermath of the massacre of SEELE by Rissa Arashikaze, her granddaughter, Riana, volunteered for and was accepted into the Evangelion Project's pilot training program. However, she was not assigned an Eva like that of Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, or Asuka Langley-Soryu, but a "technology demonstrator," EVA-03A. This mecha could not generate an AT Field, and was far inferior to the prototype Evangelions. Riana began her training, only to run into open hostility from both Asuka and Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, neither of whom believed that she has any business being at NERV._

 _Only later did Riana learn the truth—or at least a part of it. Gendo Ikari is aware of Riana Arashikaze's heritage, and believed her to have some sort of unawakened magical power. Despite Riana's explosive rivalry with Asuka and her continued failures in training, Gendo kept her on, kept pushing. The stress of training led Riana's powers to begin to slowly manifest. They did not save her, however, when she attempted to stop Israfel, the Seventh Angel._

 _So here her story continues…at the end._

* * *

Riana Arashikaze slowly awoke. It was hard to wake up. The ground beneath her was soft and warm. After much effort, she finally sat up. Joints creaked and popped. "Oww…" she moaned, then tested her fingers and toes. All responded satisfactorily.

She looked around, which was _not_ satisfactory. The white sandy beach was fine enough, but an ocean the color of blood was most assuredly not. Nor was the swath of red across the night sky. In the distance she could see the ruins of buildings, but the red sea stretched to the horizon.

Riana got to her feet, and could see she was wearing her gray plugsuit. Her muscles seemed stiff, but that made sense if she had been lying on the sand for awhile, unmoving. Nothing _else_ made sense, but that was a start.

"Where the hell am I?" she said aloud. The starry sky looked right, and the terrain around her led her to believe that she was standing in Tokyo-3—or where Tokyo-3 should be. But there was still the red ring and the red ocean.

 _Oh, I get it,_ Riana thought. _I'm dead. I remember now. Yeah. I ejected—was ejected—from my Eva, but Israfel must've gotten in one last lick. Well, that's what I get for taking on an Angel with—what did Asuka call it?—a Frankenstein. Oh well. Hope I at least bought Shinji and Super Bitch time to kill that bastard._

This, however, did not look much like Heaven. Riana prayed every night, went to church on Sundays when she could, and believed in God; she was a devout Christian. She kind of expected that, when her time came, she would be greeted by those who had gone before: her father, her mother, her aunt. There would be unlimited joy, light, and the Infinite; maybe even St. Peter waiting by the Golden Gates with the keys to the Kingdom. Heaven would be beautiful, and she'd have all eternity to figure it out.

Bloody night skies and seas, on the other hand, sounded more like Hell. Riana was a little taken aback. Granted, she was no saint—she cursed like a drunken sailor, probably ate too much pocky, harbored homicidal thoughts towards one Asuka Langley-Soryu, and occasionally lusted after guys. None of those sounded like offenses worthy of eternal damnation, though.

Assuming that she wasn't in Hell, that left one other option. "I'm in Purgatory," Riana said. "Ah, ha." As a Catholic raised in a convent, Riana understood the concept of Purgatory—people who died with no mortal sins but lesser amounts of sin still had to spend some time working off that last pound of sin. Well, she hadn't had time to confess before she died, so that must be the most logical explanation.

Of course, the Church wasn't exactly clear on what souls _did_ in Purgatory, or how long they would be there before making the final ascent into Heaven. Riana decided to go find out. _I doubt I'm the only person in Purgatory these days, so maybe I can find a guide or something. No point in just standing here worrying about it._ She dusted the sand off of her rear end, turned right, and started down the beach.

Without a watch, Riana had no idea how long she walked. The sand was clinging and hard to walk in. Just out to sea, she saw crucified figures; when stopped to look at them more closely, she could see they were Evas. That was even more disconcerting, so she hurried on, over a dune.

At the top, she saw two figures in the distance. Even with her slightly blurry eyesight, she could tell it was Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley-Soryu. "Hey!" Riana called out happily. She was not alone, after all. Neither seemed to look at her, and as Riana scampered and nearly fell down the dune, she saw that Shinji was on top of Asuka. At first, she blushed, but their clothes were still on, so it could not be that—

Then she saw that Shinji was choking Asuka.

While Riana was, under normal circumstances, not adverse to choking Asuka herself, there was no good reason for it now. Shinji, Asuka and Riana seemed to be the only three people here, and it certainly would do no one any good in Purgatory to commit the truly mortal sin of murder. Nor could she stand by and watch. "Stop, Shinji!" she yelled. "Stop!" She ran towards them, tripped, and fell into the sand. Riana pulled herself up, even as she saw Asuka struggling, her back arching, a bandaged hand coming up to push Shinji off.

As she drew within ten feet, she could see Shinji was no longer choking Asuka, though he straddled her. His chest was heaving, and he was sobbing, with such bitterness that Riana stopped, her hand half-raised, unsure of what to do.

"How disgusting." Riana looked down at Asuka. She too was in her plugsuit—Shinji was in his school uniform—but her plugsuit was ripped and torn. Her arm was bandaged from shoulder to wrist; one eye was hidden behind a bandage. The unwounded eye now looked at her. Shinji was still crying, but he looked up as well, tears running down his cheeks. "Who…who are you?" he asked.

Riana was about to reply when she realized there was a fourth someone in the mix. She saw it, beyond Shinji and Asuka, on the landward horizon. She should have noticed it before, didn't know why she had not, since it dominated that horizon, but it was Rei Ayanami. Or at least her face.

Or at least half of it. One gargantuan red eye stared back at her. The half-mouth was twisted in an unholy smile.

And Riana began to scream.

* * *

And then she woke up.

It was a tiled ceiling, one of a million in any government building, starkly white. The antiseptic smell of medicine assaulted her nose, and as other sensation returned, Riana realized she was in a hospital bed, with assorted wires and tubes attached to her. An electrocardiograph beeped steadily in one corner, next to a stand of IV bottles and tubes that vanished beneath the warm covers. In the other, Asuka stared at her over a manga.

Riana jumped; she could not suppress it. This Asuka was normal, however—no bandages, no eyepatch, though the faint look of disgust was there. Asuka gave a start when Riana did. "Hey. You're finally awake."

Riana nearly sat up, realized she had nothing on beneath the sheets, and sank lower in her pillows. "Yeah." Or that was what she tried to say; her mouth felt stuffed with cotton balls. Asuka reached over and handed her a bottle of water. Riana took a few sips. "Yeah," she repeated. "How…long was I out?"

Asuka closed the manga, stood and stretched. "Oh, three days. You're pretty lucky, you know. Your entry plug got hit by fragments when Israfel sliced your Eva's head off. It crashed into a bunch of trees. You should be dead." Asuka's tone of voice was that of surprise.

Riana could not resist. "Yeah. Too bad for you."

Asuka laughed. "Go to hell, Sister Riana. Shinji, Rei and I have been taking turns at your bedside for the past 72 hours, so quit bitching."

That took the wind out of Riana's metaphorical sails. "Wait, _you?"_

"Of course me. You're a pilot, after all—though your tinkertoy Eva has seen its better days. Luckily Israfel ignored you after it got done tearing up 03." Asuka smiled maddeningly. "Naturally, Shinji and I took it out in 62 seconds right after it entered Tokyo-3."

Riana leaned back. "So the dance plan actually worked."

"Yep. Too bad for _you_ that you didn't get to see it. Then again, if it hadn't worked, we'd all be dead, so you wouldn't know, right?" Riana shuddered, thinking of the bandaged Asuka, the crying Shinji, and the decapitated Rei. "Anyway," Asuka continued, "I'll get Misato and let her know you're awake. Don't get up or something…the docs said you had a pretty bad concussion."

"Hey," Riana called out as Asuka went out the door. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Asuka paused. "I don't know. I guess I have a soft spot for idiots or something." She smiled, cheerfully gave Riana the finger, and left.

Riana could not help but smile. She was alive, Tokyo-3 existed, Asuka was being friendly one minute and a cold bitch the next. All was right with the world.

* * *

Though the facility was surrounded by chainlink fence, the fence surmounted by signs that read USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORIZED in English and kanji, the signs were faded and there were holes in the fence. The facility was in decay, dilapidated; electrical wires hung slack from a rusting radar tower. Dirty white sand had shifted into the facility, though the Sea of Japan was a good kilometer distant—a legacy of the tidal waves that had battered Japan after Second Impact.

All of this both satisfied and discomfited Ryoji Kaji.

According to the information he had, the Matsushiro Research Facility was supposed to be manned, with labs inside clean concrete buildings, and personnel drawn from both NERV and the Japanese government. Kaji made his way swiftly across open ground, through one of the collapsed fences, and up to the front door of the facility. One hand went to the pistol in a shoulder holster, the other to the doorknob.

The door opened easily.

Kaji took his hand off the pistol and walked into the room. It was deserted, and had been for some time. The desks were second-hand, government issue, and caked in a layer of dust. Chairs were pushed against desks or fallen over on the floor, and old landline telephones were wrapped in their own cords, sitting on the bare desks. The Matsushiro Research Facility, part of the Marduk Institute, was deserted…if it had ever been manned at all.

Kaji reached down and pulled out a chair, which sent a cloud of dust up from the floor, and sat down. He reached into his coat again, but this time he withdrew a pack of cigarettes. He stilled the slight trembling in his hands, put a cigarette between his lips, and fished for his lighter.

A match scraped into life in a dark corner of the room, one blocked by a desk. "'If the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into,'" a voice said. Kaji knew he would never reach his pistol in time, especially since there was already one trained on him, so he raised his hands.

"Hello, Ryoji Kaji," said Rissa Arashikaze.


	2. Wishmaster

_Matsushiro Research Facility_

 _Near Nagano, Japan_

 _4 November 2016_

"Rissa Arashikaze, I presume," Ryoji Kaji said. He leaned forward so that the short woman could light his cigarette for him. "I can tell the family resemblance."

Rissa laughed. "That's bullshit, Kaji-san. Riana looks nothing like me. Luckily for her." She declined his offer of a cigarette. "No thanks. Those things will kill you. What brings you to the opulent Matsushiro Research Facility?" She gestured around the dusty office.

"The same thing as you, I suppose," Kaji answered. "Trying to find out something about the Marduk Institute."

"Actually, no," Rissa corrected him. "I'm here to speak to you."

"You knew I was coming here?"

"I know people."

 _Damn,_ Kaji thought, _the Japanese government._ Officially, Kaji worked for NERV. Unofficially, he worked for the Japanese government, keeping an eye on NERV. Kaji suspected that Gendo Ikari knew quite well what he was up to, but was content to allow Kaji to be a spy. The trick was to convince Ikari that he was a harmless one. Kaji guessed that he should not be surprised that Rissa Arashikaze had contacts inside Tokyo-2. He waited for Rissa to either speak to him or to shoot him.

"So what have you learned about the Marduk Group?" she finally asked.

Kaji saw no reason to lie. "It doesn't exist. There's 108 companies. 106 of them I've found out were dummy corporations. Matsushiro is number 107. Supposedly it works for the UN to select Evangelion pilots…including your granddaughter."

Rissa smiled. "Squares up nicely from what I know about Marduk. Someone has a sick sense of humor. Marduk was a Babylonian god, the patron deity of Babylon itself. The Assyrians called Marduk Baal, and he was associated with child sacrifice. Interesting choice for an institute supposedly choosing children for Evangelion duty. There's also the number 108."

Kaji nodded. 108 was not only a bad luck number in Asia, it was the worst number one could get. There were plenty of references in Japanese myth to 108 demons. "If you knew," he said, "then why did you allow your granddaughter to be selected?"

"She made that choice. I didn't."

"You couldn't have stopped her?"

"I ask the questions, not you," Rissa snapped. He tensed. The pistol was still pointed in his direction. "Now tell me about NERV."

"Why? You know probably as much as I do."

Her smile returned, but there was no warmth in it. "Pretend I know nothing."

Kaji shrugged. "A special agency, chartered by the UN. The Earth's first, last, and only line of defense against an unknown enemy that we've codenamed Angels. Angels that _only_ attack Tokyo-3…as if they're after NERV itself."

"Quite the coincidence," Rissa said, cutting him off. "That the only things capable of combating the Angels—the Evangelion Project—just happens to be _in_ Tokyo-3. Almost as if Tokyo-3 was built specifically to defend the planet against the Angels." She sniffed a laugh. "But how can that be, Kaji-san, when the construction of Tokyo-3 began almost two decades before the Angels first began to arrive, just after the destruction of Second Impact? Of Armageddon?" Rissa shook her head. "'But of that day and hour knoweth no man,'" she quoted. "But one man knew, didn't he? Gendo Ikari."

Kaji suspected he was being played for a fool, but he risked heading out further onto increasingly thinner ice. "It's not just Gendo. It's SEELE. If Gendo pulls the strings of the Marduk Group, SEELE pulls Commander Ikari's."

"SEELE? Tell me about them." Kaji began, but stopped as Rissa held up a hand. "Actually, never mind. I'll tell _you._ SEELE was a group of old men, a secret society who have been running the world for decades, even centuries. They paid for NERV. Built it. Did you know that, Ryoji Kaji?"

"Yes."

"Good." She was silent for a moment, and her smile widened. "They're also dead."

Kaji blinked in amazement. He had not known of SEELE for long, and the information had come at a high price. "How…did you—"

"I killed them. Every one of them." Rissa said it flatly, as if discussing the weather.

Kaji leaned back in his chair, and took a deep drag of his cigarette. If SEELE was dead, then no one was pulling Gendo Ikari's strings. That made the man even more dangerous. SEELE had their own objective, and Kaji was not sure if they were using Ikari to reach that objective or he was using them, but their own self-interest acted as a check on Ikari's power, and his plan. With those checks gone, there might be no stopping Ikari. He wondered if Rissa knew that, or even cared. "Why?" he asked.

"SEELE wanted to control humanity. Their copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls supposedly held a record of humanity's past and future. That future includes the end of the world, and they planned on using NERV and Evangelion to achieve it. Gendo, Dr. Akagi, you, the Evangelion pilots—they were just pawns."

"I think I understand," Kaji told her. "You killed SEELE so Riana would not be a pawn."

"That was part of it." Rissa holstered the pistol and folded her hands on the broken desk. "My granddaughter is an idealist, and I knew she planned on applying to Marduk for selection, just like hundreds of other teenagers around the world. I also knew that she would be accepted, unlike hundreds of other teenagers, because Gendo would know of her heritage. Killing SEELE gave her a better chance at survival…or so I thought.

"But Riana was only part of the reason, Kaji-san. Just part." Rissa paused. "You see, I don't think that a bunch of old men who _thought_ they controlled humanity's destiny was the right people to trust with that destiny. I decided that Armageddon needed a change. The Dead Sea Scrolls needed an editor. Whatever. When I finally learned where SEELE was, after long years of hunting them, I decided to hit the reset button. Those old bastards don't get to determine the fate of what's left of the human race. I figured that it was maybe past time that humans like yourself, or my granddaughter, got to choose their own fate this time."

"And Gendo Ikari?"

Rissa stood, and her face darkened with anger. "Ikari is about to be reminded that he is still on a leash, but Keel Lorenz's hand isn't on it anymore. Mine is."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Kaji asked. He stubbed out the cigarette on the floor. "I know a lot more than I did when I came in here." That was not quite true; he knew most of what Rissa Arashikaze had spoken of—less the part about SEELE being gone, of course. "In fact, you might say I know too much now."

"Awfully cavalier with your own life, aren't you?" Rissa came around from behind the desk and stood in front of him. "But then I know a little something about _your_ past, Ryoji Kaji. And that's why I'm trusting you with this. I think you're a good man. From what my sources tell me, you try to help those kids, the Eva pilots, and that includes Riana. Maybe you're trying to make up for past misdeeds, maybe not…but kindness means a lot to me. So I'm going to trust you." As she walked past him, she patted him on the shoulder. "Besides, you work for me now, as well as Ikari and Japan's so-called government."

"When did this happen?"

Rissa looked over her shoulder. "Right now."

* * *

 _Apartment 302, Apartment Complex West_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _5 November 2016_

Riana Arashikaze stared at her right hand, and moved it up and down as she lay in bed. It got blurry. She was still getting spells of double vision. Ritsuko Akagi had told her that the spells would pass; until they did, she was not going anywhere near an Evangelion, nor was she going to school. The brain needed the rest, even if the body didn't, though Riana was not to exert herself too much. After a final debriefing with Commander Ikari, she was allowed to return to her apartment. She found it clean, with a handwritten note from Kazuko Bishamon, that she had swept and cleaned for her. Kazuko had added a few brightly colored rugs as well, which brought some needed contrast to the battleship gray walls.

She had spoken to her grandmother the night before. Rissa Arashikaze was not as angry as Riana had thought she would be; she was not happy, but neither did she criticize Riana for her actions. Such things were occasionally necessary, was all Rissa had said, but she had better not do it again. Both of them knew that Riana would do it again in a heartbeat.

 _It's weird,_ she told herself. _I had no chance in hell against that Angel. Yet I didn't think I was going to die for a second. In fact, I never felt…so alive._ There had been an undeniable rush of adrenalin, a feeling she could not quite describe. But it felt good. _Really good,_ she admitted to herself. She wondered if any of the other pilots felt it. Shinji almost certainly didn't, and Riana doubted Rei did. Asuka, on the other hand, almost certainly did. _Oh man. Don't tell me I'm becoming like Asuka. Blech._

Her doorbell sounded. Riana looked in that direction for a moment, then it rang again. She dragged herself out of bed, put on a robe to hide the fact that she was in her underwear, and pressed the intercom. "Who is it?"

"Shinji…Shinji Ikari."

 _Shinji? What's he doing here?_ Riana then chided herself. _Silly, he's probably just checking up on you. Asuka and Rei did that at the hospital._ She opened the door and squinted against the bright sun. Shinji stood there in his school uniform—white shirt, dark slacks. Riana could not remember if she had ever seen him in anything but, aside from his plugsuit. "Konnichi wa, Ikari-kun."

"Konnichi wa, Arashikaze-kun." He held up a sheaf of papers. "The school wanted me to drop these off for you…and Ayanami. I don't think she's home, though."

"Oh, right. Homework." Riana grinned. "I guess even almost getting killed by an Angel doesn't get me out of homework, does it?' Shinji didn't smile. "That was supposed to be a joke."

"Um," was all Shinji said in reply. He shuffled his feet. "How…how are you feeling?"

"Better. Still getting double vision sometimes."

"That's good. I mean, that you're better." The silence got uncomfortably long. Shinji turned. "Well…I guess I should get going. You're probably still tired. Kensuke and Toji say hello."

"Ah…" Riana hesitated, then plunged on. "Why…why don't you come in for a little bit? Give me the, uh, whatever's happening at school. And at NERV. I've been kinda out of the loop for a bit."

She figured Shinji would say no. It was awkward. There was something about coming here that bothered him. Still, it was polite, and she needed to talk to someone, someone who would understand. Someone who had fought an Angel and lived to tell about it.

Shinji paused, then he hesitantly nodded. "Okay."


	3. Japanese Boy

_Apartment 302, Apartment Complex West_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _5 November 2016_

Riana told Shinji to make himself at home while she grabbed some clothes and dashed into the closetlike bathroom to change. A month ago, just answering the door in her robe would have scandalized her, but Riana admitted to herself that she was getting less modest. She had changed into her plugsuit in front of Rei and Asuka several times without more than just a little blushing. She was not, however, ready to start changing in front of Shinji. There was also the fact that she had noticed Shinji trying to cover the occasional, involuntary glance at Riana's legs, rear and bust; Shinji might not be the most masculine boy in Japan, but he was still a boy.

She came out of the bathroom dressed in pants and a loose blouse. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Er…Japanese or English?"

It took a minute for Shinji to realize she meant which language they would like to converse in. "Ah, Japanese, please." He hesitated. "Your Japanese is better than my English."

"Sure. Just speak slowly, please."

"It's gotten a lot better. Your Japanese, that is."

"I know, right? I can't believe how fast I picked up the language. I'm even starting to dream in it!" She laughed, with a little nervousness. It was obvious Shinji was more than a little nervous; he was sitting in her one chair, at her computer desk, almost at attention with his hands on his knees. _Well, this is great,_ Riana thought as the silence stretched out again, _I invited him in here and now I don't know what to do with him._ It hit her that Shinji was really one of her few friends in Tokyo-3, and with the exception of Misato Katsuragi and Rei—and Riana had no idea where, exactly, she stood with Rei Ayanami—all of her friends were male. She considered that maybe it was only natural: she had spent nearly her entire life surrounded by only females at the convent, so perhaps it was instinct, or hormones, or the fact that she had no idea what girls her age talked about that she gravitated towards people like Shinji, Kensuke and Toji.

Now that Shinji _was_ in her apartment, though, it didn't feel right. Riana had a feeling that Shinji was doing it out of politeness, or out of fear that Riana would have an Asuka-like reaction if he refused. She wondered if he would have done the same for Rei. The two quiet ones seemed more alike.

"Ah…would you like tea, or coffee?" Whatever Shinji's reasons, or her own, she should at least fix them something.

Shinji shrugged. "Whatever you would like."

"Coffee, then. I've never made tea before." Riana got out her instant coffee and filters for the battered coffeemaker she had salvaged from a dumpster. It looked bad, but it made good coffee, without which she would probably have died long before Israfel showed up. She spooned in enough for two cups and switched the machine on. While the coffeemaker made burbling noises, Riana turned back to Shinji and leaned against the counter. "Sooo…what else has been going on since I've been out?"

Shinji once more looked hesitant, then spoke. "Well…Misato got promoted."

"Really? To Colonel?"

"No, Major." Shinji's expression was quizzical.

"I thought she already was one." Riana lightly tapped the side of her head and smiled. "Maybe I got a little brain damaged too."

"Well…you're an Eva pilot."

It took both of them a minute to realize Shinji had made a joke. Riana giggled, and Shinji grinned. It changed his whole face. The giggling turned into laughter. "Yeah, that's a good point!" Riana got out between laughs. "Holy crap, Shinji, we've _got_ to be brain-damaged to keep doing this."

"Yeah." He scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed. "Anyway, we…we had a party to celebrate. It was Kensuke's idea." Another pause. "We tried calling you, but there was no answer."

"They didn't let me out of NERV until this morning." It was Riana's turn to shrug. "No worries, Shinji-kun. I'm not much of a party person."

"Yeah. Me neither, but, you know…I had fun." Shinji smiled again. Riana liked his smile. "It was a real first for me. Just making all this noise, and everyone was happy. I used to think that kind of stuff was stupid. It just felt really good. Anyway, if we do it again, you…you should come over too. Horiaki-kun was there, along with Asuka and Misato and Kaji-san, and Kensuke and Toji."

"Not Rei?"

"She was doing synch tests in EVA-00. I guess it's operational again."

"I imagine Rei wouldn't be much for partying either." The coffeemaker made a chirping noise, and Riana took out the pot. She poured into two paper cups, since she didn't own any dishes. "Milk?"

"Uh, please."

Riana took a small jug of milk from the refrigerator and poured a little into Shinji's cup, then into her own. She actually didn't like milk in her coffee—she liked it black and bitter—but felt it might dishonor Shinji otherwise. "It's a little hot." Shinji took a drink, and nodded. Riana hoped that was approval.

"Shinji," she asked, daring, "do you…ever _enjoy_ piloting your Eva?"

He looked into the cup. "No."

"Do you think I'm weird if I said I do?"

Shinji smiled slightly. "Not really. I mean, Asuka loves it. But she was born for it, I guess."

Riana took a sip of the coffee. "Maybe me too." At his look, she pointed to the picture of her parents and her grandmother, perched on the computer desk. "I found out recently that _both_ my parents were soldiers. My gramma is too. I guess it's just the Arashikaze tradition. We've always just liked to fight. Maybe that's why Asuka and I get into it. We both like to fight."

"I don't," Shinji said. "I'm not a soldier. Not like you, or Asuka, or like Misato or Kaji-san, or even like what Kensuke wants to be."

"But you keep doing it."

"My father makes me."

Riana shook her head and took another sip. "I don't think Commander Ikari _makes_ you, Shinji. You could walk away. I think you do it because it's your duty."

"I suppose." Shinji took a big drink, and Riana realized that this was not a subject he wanted to talk about. _Great going, Sister Riana,_ she thought; her conscience apparently talked like Asuka now _._ "I just…don't like piloting the Eva," Shinji continued. "For him. For Dad."

Riana was taken aback. There was tension between father and son—everyone who spent more than three days at NERV realized that. "You hate him?" she blurted, and when he looked up sharply at her, Riana gulped and said the first thing that came to mind. "I mean, I could understand that. Your dad is kind of, well, an asshole." Her free hand shot to her mouth. "Oh, crap. I'm sorry, Shinji! I shouldn't have said that."

Shinji's smile came back, though it was more of a wan smile than a happy one. "No, that's okay. He _is_ kind of an asshole."

"Well, don't tell him so! Asshole or not, I don't want to make him mad. He just confirmed this morning that I'm staying on with the Project."

"Oh." Shinji clearly didn't know whether or not to congratulate her, or to pity her. "That's…that's good."

"Yeah. Seems he was impressed that I'd do something incredibly stupid like charge an Angel with an Eva that wasn't made to fight one. So I guess I get to stay. They're going to be putting EVA-03A back together for me. I guess there was a delay with EVA-03's engine back in the States." Riana sighed, unable to stop smiling. "Feels good though, Shinji." She had to tell him. "I just felt…really _alive_ when I was fighting the Angel. It wasn't fun, no, but it was just…I can't even describe it." She motioned with the coffee cup towards Shinji. "And then there's you guys. Hell, you, Kensuke, Toji, maybe even Rei—you guys are the only real friends I've ever had. The convent girls just sort of ignored me, or treated me like a pest. I like being here in Tokyo-3. It's, well, fun."

He nodded. "Me too, I guess." Their smiles were mutual. It was unspoken between them, but there was a bond now. Riana had heard tales from her mother on how soldiers fighting together became closer than siblings. They shared that bond because they had faced the same threat, the same hardships, the same situations that outsiders would never understand. Fighting men and women might not care about countries, or about causes, but they did care about each other. Maybe Rei felt the same way, maybe even Asuka, in her own warped fashion. Kazuko Bishamon would understand. Her grandmother certainly would, and so would have her mother and her father. Riana wished she could tell her father. _I'm a warrior now, Dad. Just like you._

"You should talk to him," Riana suddenly said. "Your dad. Even if he _is_ an asshole."

"Why?"

"If you don't, I don't think anything's going to change between you." Riana saw the look on Shinji's face, but she continued. "Commander Ikari…he's got a tough job, you know. Defending the earth and all."

"Don't defend him, Riana," Shinji said darkly, almost threateningly, which surprised her.

She stood her ground. "I'm not. But you should maybe try to talk to him." She looked down. "At least you still have your dad. Mine's dead."

Despite the billions dead from Second Impact, Shinji still looked surprised. "I'm sorry. What about your mom?"

"Dad died in Second Impact. Mom was hurt, but…she died having me." Riana drank more of the coffee. "Gramma raised me for awhile, then left me at the convent. But Gramma visits a lot. She told me—too many times," Riana laughed softly, "but she told me, 'If it's worth doing, do it now. There may be no tomorrow.'" She finished the coffee and threw the cup in the garbage. "I'm sorry, Shinji. It's none of my business. We have kind of a lousy job, but I guess…I guess I just want to see everyone be happy, as they can be. We might not have a tomorrow." The tension was too much, so she pointed towards the ceiling. "I even tried to make Rei smile."

Shinji chuckled. "Did you?"

"It's a work in progress."

He finished his coffee and carefully placed the cup in the garbage. "I should get going. Misato's probably wondering where I am, and Asuka's going to want her dinner."  
" _Hambagu?"_ During her brief sojourn at Misato's apartment, Riana had discovered Asuka's favorite dish.

" _Hambagu._ "

She walked with him to the door—or tried to, because the hallway was so narrow he had to walk ahead of her. "I'm sorry," she repeated. "I didn't mean to give you a pep talk or something."

"No…it's okay." Shinji smiled back at her. "I…it's appreciated."

"Sure. _Ja ne."_ He returned the farewell and Riana closed the door behind him. She could hear him walk away, and blew her breath out. "Geez, Riana," she said aloud. "Way to go sticking your nose into other people's beeswax. Oh well." She remembered another of Rissa Arashikaze's sayings: _if you didn't want it to be said, you shouldn't have said it._ It probably needed to be said, and anyway, she felt better after opening up to Shinji. He really was the only choice, Riana told herself. Rei would just have stared at her, and Asuka would have made fun of her.

Riana went into the bathroom to change into her pajamas, and saw herself in the mirror. She shook her head at her reflection. "Just admit it, you," she whispered. "You think Shinji's kind of cute. When he smiles, anyway."

At that moment, Riana Arashikaze resolved to make Shinji Ikari smile more often. A lot more often.


	4. Sabotage

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry about the long delay since the last update. I was on vacation, and a great vacation it was. I'll get to updating more often, though this will be a busy summer. In any case, here's a slightly longer chapter to make up for the wait!_

 _The Geofront_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _6 November 2016_

Riana Arashikaze was, for the first time at NERV, colossally bored.

Sync tests were not meant to be exciting. Every week all of the Evangelion pilots were required to undergo the tests, if possible. This was to ascertain how well they were synchronizing with their Evangelion—how well the Eva responded to them, how well they could control the Eva, and so on. It was extremely important: the higher the sync rate, the better the pilot was at their job. Asuka had the best score, with Rei and Shinji runners-up. Riana's was the lowest, barely in the teens, but Ritsuko Akagi reassured her that the levels were set low for her, since EVA-03A was not as advanced as the other Evas. No matter how good she became, Riana would never be able to reach the others' levels—until she got her own actual Eva, of course.

When she had been notified of the sync test earlier, Riana looked forward to it. It was her first day back at NERV since being released from the hospital, her first day out of "concussion protocol," as Ritsuko put it, and Riana hoped to get back into 03A again. Instead, she was put into one of the test plugs—one identical to the plugs inserted into the Evas, but not physically placed in the mecha. Connections were set up remotely as the plug was lowered into LCL halfway. Once that was done and the connections in place, the pilots…sat there. It could take an hour or two. It was Riana's first time in a test plug; all her other sync tests were actually onboard EVA-03A.

For the twentieth time in 45 minutes, Riana sat back in her chair and sighed. The pilot was supposed to concentrate on their Eva, but Riana was pretty sure that she was nowhere near that stage with 03A, unless it was possible for the Eva to be bored too. She wondered what Shinji and Rei did. Asuka bragged that she slept during the sync tests. _The least they could do is put some music in here,_ Riana thought. She stretched her arms and cracked her knuckles.

She almost jumped when Ritsuko's voice came over the speakers. "All right, Pilots. That's enough for today. Once you're out of the plugs, assemble in the briefing room. Leave your plugsuits on for now."

"Thank God," she heard Asuka mutter over the open line.

There were some cracking noises as NERV personnel opened the hatches, and helped each of the pilots out. Riana did more stretching, and her back gave a satisfying pop. "Hey, everyone!" she greeted them. Riana had been the last one in the plug, so she had not seen Rei and Asuka since her hospital stay. She walked down over to the others.

Asuka was the first in line. "You better?" she asked. "Not seeing double?"

"Yeah," Riana answered. "I'll probably be in school tomorrow."

"You haven't missed anything." Asuka turned to head for the corridor. Rei gave Riana a nod, but Shinji said nothing. She nudged him as he went past. "Hey."

"Oh…uh, hi." Shinji seemed to notice her for the first time.

"Everything okay?"

"Sure."

Riana did not believe him. Shinji was not the world's best poker player. "It doesn't look okay."

"Just a lot on my mind," Shinji said with finality, and moved past her. Riana tried not to take offense; Shinji _did_ have a lot going on most of the time. It was a little disconcerting to get brushed off, though. She noticed Asuka looking strangely at both of them, her eyebrows narrowed. Asuka seemed ready to say something, then think better of it and continue on, but her expression was still one of being annoyed. _Great,_ Riana thought, _that's the last thing I need._ Asuka had been civil, almost even friendly in the hospital, and her inquiry into Riana's health seemed to be kind enough. If their war was over, that was more than fine with Riana. She hoped that nearly being killed by an Angel had gained some respect in Asuka's eyes—it had with Shinji, obviously, though who knew what Rei thought about it. Riana lengthened her stride to catch up with Asuka. She wanted to know—no, needed to know—where she stood with the other girl.

And then the lights went out.

Riana nearly collided with Asuka in the darkness. The corridor was not well lit to begin with, but now it was pitch black. "What the hell?" she called out.

"Power outage?" Shinji had a gift for stating the obvious.

"I can't see a damn thing!" So did Asuka. Riana could feel the other girl nearby, then gave a start when she felt a hand brush against her breasts. "Oh. That must be Riana," Asuka snorted.

Riana twisted away. "Well, it's damn sure not Shinji."

"Or Rei," Asuka agreed. "Relax, Sister…I'm not copping a feel. I'm trying to find the wall."

"It's over here," Shinji called out. There was a thump. "Ow."

There was silence as they groped for the steel walls. There was some ambient light: about fifty feet down the corridor, a battery-operated emergency light glowed red. Even with that, the pilots were still just shadows to each other. "This is not a standard power outage," Rei said into the quiet. "The lights have been off for 52 seconds. In such a case, the reserve generators should have come online."

Asuka visibly jumped. "Would you _please_ not mumble from the darkness? I almost had a heart attack!"

"Maybe there was an accident," Riana stated.

"That is not particularly likely," Rei replied. "There are many redundant power systems—"

"Which clearly aren't working!" Asuka interrupted.

"—but in any case we can do nothing here. We should head for Central Dogma." Rei brushed by the four of them, and headed down the corridor.

"Hey!" Asuka shouted. "How can you be leader? You can barely even talk!"

"Come on," Shinji pleaded, "let's just…there's no point in fighting."

"Rei's right," Riana added. "Let's just get out of here. Commander Ikari will know what to do."

"He's not here," Rei said from ahead of them. "He departed yesterday."

There was another, more uncomfortable stretch of silence, then Asuka began walking forward as well. "Fine, whatever. Slow down, Rei! It's still pitch black. Geez. Deaf, blind _and_ mute."

Rei obediently slowed down for them to catch up. "I have memorized the layout of headquarters." There was the slightest hint of smugness in the voice. Riana smiled in the darkness. Even Rei occasionally could not resist a dig at someone. She heard Asuka muttering something about the new girl—which technically was not accurate, as Riana was the newest—but they continued on, Rei's white plugsuit a beacon in what little light they had. Somehow by default, Riana ended up bringing up the rear.

Then they came to a door. It was a heavy steel fire door; they had passed through it many times, and it obviously had automatically closed when the power went down. Riana went up and pushed the button. "Not working."

"No shit," Asuka growled. "There should be a manual switch somewhere." She shouldered past Riana, peered closely at the wall, then pulled down an access panel. Inside was a hand crank. "There we go. Shinji, if you'll do the honors."

"Me? Why me?" Shinji asked.

"Because you're a boy, and we're girls, and therefore it's your job. Now get moving," Asuka ordered, and Shinji obeyed. He grabbed the crank with both hands and slowly began to turn it. The crank had never been used and only reluctantly moved. Shinji grunted with the strain, but the door began to open. Riana went to help, but there was only room for one person, and she stepped back, unsure on whether to let Shinji go or shove him out of the way. She saw him look up at her, then go back to his task with extra effort. The door was soon open enough for Rei to get through. Inertia held the door open and the rest followed.

There was a little more light here. "I know where we are," Asuka said triumphantly. She got ahead of Rei, turned the corner, and walked right into Makoto Hyuga. She screamed and stepped back, only to slip and land on her rear. "Oh, sorry!" Hyuga apologized. He waved his flashlight around. "All four of you came here on your own?"

"We weren't going to wait around!" Asuka yelled. She got back to her feet.

"I'm just glad you're here. We were getting ready to send out search parties." He smiled at them. "Hey, at least you didn't have to crawl around in air ducts or something. We would've never found you then." He motioned them forward with the flashlight, and a few minutes later, they stepped into Central Dogma.

* * *

The air was less thick on the bridge, even if it was getting hot. The plugsuits helped wick sweat away, but Riana was grateful for the bottle of water Hyuga handed her. The bridge was lit by the computer screens, but they were dimmer than usual, and the gigantic holographic projection ahead of the bridge was eerily dark. Riana went up to Ritsuko, who was standing in the center of the bridge, hand rubbing her chin in thought. "Dr. Akagi? What's going on?"

"I wish we knew." She turned to the pilots. "There's no point in keeping it quiet. Primary, auxiliary, and reserve power went down—not concurrently, but simultaneously."

"Isn't that impossible?" Riana asked, with a glance at Rei.

"In case of an accident, yes. Deliberately, no."

Her words hung in the air for a moment. Shigeru Aoba broke it first. "Someone sabotaged it. Sabotaged _us._ "

"We should consider it," Ritsuko stated. She looked over the four of them. "Did you pass Major Katsuragi on your way here? She was supposed to be heading this way."

"No," Riana answered. "We wouldn't have missed her."

"Damn. Technically, she's still in command with the Commander and Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki gone."

Asuka was frantically looking around the bridge. "Where's Mr. Kaji? Wasn't he supposed to be here today?"

Maya Ibuki looked up from her console. "Kaji-san? I saw him walking down the hall with Major Katsuragi before the power failed."

The color drained out of Asuka's face, and Riana wondered if she was about to pass out. "What…what are they doing together…with the lights out?"

Riana was tempted to say something snarky—it was hard to resist giving Asuka some of her own medicine—but the devastated expression on Asuka's face was such that she could not do it. "I think you're reading too much into it," she said instead.

Asuka suddenly straightened up and a look of cold determination came into her face. "Shinji." The name was no less than a command. Shinji took a step back. "We're going to look for them. Come with me." She held out her hand, and Hyuga, despite himself, put his flashlight in it. "You too," she told Rei. "You're useful in the dark."

"No." Rei turned her back on Asuka and walked over to Aoba. "This is not my concern."

"Knew you'd say that. Fine! Let's go by ourselves, Shinji." She pointed at Riana. "You stay here."

"Okay by me. I'm not floundering around in the dark," Riana snapped back. Asuka did not spare her so much as a glance. She grabbed Shinji by the ear and dragged him into the corridor. Riana could hear her telling Shinji what the purpose of their mission was.

Ritsuko rolled her eyes. "We don't have time for this…"

* * *

Riana leaned her chair against the wall. By Ibuki's watch, it had been nearly an hour since the power went down. The air was getting progressively heavier. Ibuki had remarked that emergency life support power was being channeled to keeping the Magi computers up and running. There was plenty of air in the Geofront, but without fans to circulate it, the air would become progressively more stale. In a few hours, oxygen levels could drop low enough that people would start passing out—and it probably would happen in the lower levels first.

 _Assuming we don't die of heat exhaustion before then,_ Riana remarked to herself. The plugsuit was becoming very uncomfortable, and there was no way of loosening it without taking it off—and she was going to have to get a lot hotter before that happened. At least the others had something to do. Even Rei was helping Aoba manually check each circuit. Riana did not have any marketable skills, as it were, and so she was reduced to sitting in the corner, drinking water, and hoping the power came on before the air ran out. Praying seemed to be a good idea too, so she quietly did some of that.

"Riana, come here a moment." Ritsuko had taken off her white jacket in the heat, Riana noticed as she got up. Ritsuko handed her a pad. "You want to be useful?" Riana nodded. "Good." She tapped the pad; on it was a map of Central Dogma. "Follow that route to Access Panel CD-TK-421. When you get there, open it. Don't touch anything in it; there's a power cable in there, and even if the power's off, it may not be safe. Then come back and let me know if it looks frayed or anything. Don't dawdle."

"You're not just giving me busy work, are you?" Riana asked.

"No, Riana. That—" Ritsuko hesitated, muttered a curse under her breath, and continued. "That's the main power cable to the bridge. We need to know why it failed, and you're the only person who isn't doing anything." The doctor smiled a little. "If there's something I've learned about you in the past few weeks, Miss Arashikaze, it's that you like to keep moving. No matter how intelligent it may or may not be."

Riana took the pad from her and smiled back. "Okay, Doctor. I'll be back in a bit." She picked up a flashlight and headed into the same corridor Asuka and Shinji had disappeared down an hour earlier.

* * *

The corridor was just as pitch black as it had been, and Ritsuko's map took her away from the path the pilots had followed from the test plugs. She ended up in a dusty, obviously little-used access corridor; one of the doors had to be cranked open here too, which left her dusty, sweaty, and generally more miserable than she was before. _Sure hope the plugsuit is machine-washable_ , she thought, then wondered just how NERV _did_ clean the plugsuits. _Glad I don't have that job._

Using the flashlight in one hand and the pad in the other, Riana found Access Panel CD-TK-421. It was helpfully outlined in red and white hatching, with plenty of warning labels about high voltage. There was an emergency latch, and she pulled down on it. Gravity caused the panel to fall open, exposing the thick power cable.

It was cut clean through.

"Holy shit," Riana said aloud. A cable as thick as this would need an acetylene torch to slice through, and then it would take at least fifteen minutes. She assumed that NERV would not be kind enough to let a saboteur take that time; surely the access panel had an alarm on it. She could see no scorch marks on the cable either, and yet there was no question this had been done with deliberation and skill.

Riana was not paying attention to what she was doing for a moment, and the pad slipped out of her hand to crash on the floor. "Dammit," she exclaimed as she bent down to pick it up, but the pad was undamaged. It was then she noticed the scorch marks on the floor.

They were circular. Almost perfectly so, with the black streaks heading away from the center, like an impact crater. The center of the corridor was untouched. There were streaks on the walls as well. On impulse, she reached down and touched one of the streaks. Her hand instantly tingled. It was not necessarily an unpleasant sensation, and one she had felt before—and recently. _Oh my God._ Her free hand went involuntarily to her mouth. _Whoever was here…this is magic. Someone used magic. Magic like mine. I've got to get back and tell Dr. Akagi._

Riana scooped up the pad and held it under her arm as she quickly shut the access panel. She then grabbed the flashlight and headed out the door, almost at a run. Riana did not realize she had taken the wrong turn until a minute later. _Crap. Okay, okay,_ she told herself, _get control of yourself, Riana. Just backtrack a bit and you'll find it. Heck, this corridor is so dusty you can probably find your footprints._

Then she heard voices. "I'm not scared of a kiss!" someone shouted.

 _What the hell? That's Shinji!_ Riana headed in that direction, even as she heard Asuka say "Really? You're sure now."

"I'm sure!" Shinji's voice was as determined as it could get. Riana shut off her flashlight as she came to a corner; the other two pilots were close on the other side of it.

"Then close your eyes," Asuka ordered. There was a brief silence, and then Riana heard Asuka mutter, somewhat unsteadily, "Here we go."

 _They're going to kiss?_ Riana's mind whirled. _At a time like this? I know it's hot and all, but…and Asuka wants to kiss Shinji? She hates Shinji! And Shinji hates her! Shinji hasn't kissed anyone that I know of—I bet Asuka hasn't either; she's no more 'experienced' than me—she's still a virgin too, dammit—I need to stop this! Shinji shouldn't be kissing that Kraut bitch…he should be kissing…me…_

And then the lights snapped on.

Riana gasped and blinked as she felt like someone was setting fire to her corneas, but the feeling passed soon enough, and she stepped into the corridor as the elevator beyond Shinji and Asuka dinged open.

Much like the child in the proverbial candy store, Riana was not sure where to look next. In the foreground was Shinji and Asuka. Shinji's eyes were indeed closed, and his lips were puckered for the kiss. Asuka's lips were in the same position, but they went into their customary scowl as she saw the tableaux in the elevator. Sprawled there, in the background, was Ryoji Kaji and Misato Katsuragi, their clothes disheveled, Misato's arms around Kaji's neck, his legs on either side of hers, and one hand on her right breast. He jerked the hand away like it had been grasping a snake, and the two looked thunderstruck at the three pilots before them.

Asuka's expression changed to one of apoplexy. "Wh…what…what are you two _doing?!"_ she shouted. Shinji remained in place, resolutely awaiting the kiss that was not coming.

"Same to you!" Kaji shot back.

Riana shook her head. "Perverts," she said sadly. "You're all perverts."


	5. Thunderstruck

_The Geofront_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _7 November 2016_

Misato Katsuragi was glad that life support at NERV included the air conditioning. Even with it on, Ritsuko Akagi's office was getting a little stuffy—then again, there were three women present, plus several computers. She took off her jacket and draped it over a chair. "Okay, I'm here, Rits," she said. "Did you get in touch with the Commander?"

"Not yet," Ritsuko replied. "Aoba says the VLF should be up in a few minutes." She leaned against her desk. "Maya, would you mind updating Major Katsuragi?"

Maya Ibuki gave a swift nod. She turned her laptop so Misato could see it. "We've figured out why we lost power. In ten locations, the power was cut by means of a program which fed simulated transmission errors into the switching control subroutine."

Misato rolled her eyes. "Remember that I'm a computer dumbass, Maya."

"We were hacked," Maya answered instantly. "But that's not all." She brought up a map that showed the Geofront and Tokyo-3 above them. "The hacking was just to disable our internal power. NERV draws most of its power from Tokyo-3 itself—solar, geothermal, nuclear, etcetera." She tapped on the screen with a stylus, highlighting points on the map. "The power from Tokyo-3 was severed physically in 27 different locations."

"At once?" Misato's eyes widened in shock.

"No. In sequence. It probably took the better part of two or three hours. The hacking was also to keep the Magi from noticing. By the time it did, it was too late to stop it." Maya turned the map. "Not all the physical damage was done above ground. Four power lines were cut inside the Geofront itself."

"Like the one Riana found," Misato said.

"That was the closest one to Central Dogma."

"What about that blast pattern we found in the access corridor?"

It was Ritsuko who answered this time. "We found the same pattern on the other three cables. The saboteur—or saboteurs, plural—used some sort of explosive to blow open the access panels, then severed the cables."

Misato cleared off a chair of printouts and sat down. "And somehow nobody heard a thing."

"Not quite true," Maya told her. "Some of the techs heard some bangs just before the power went out."

"They didn't report it because there are a lot of bangs and random noises down here," Ritsuko added.

"Well, from now on they'd damn well better report it!" Misato exclaimed. She banged her fist on the desk, which caused Ritsuko's salt and pepper shakers to jump.

Ritsuko waited a few seconds for the red to drain out of Misato's cheeks, then continued. "The physical damage has been repaired, and the hacking program purged from the system. But Misato…" Ritsuko paused. "I don't think the power outage was what…whoever did this…I don't think it was their intention at all." At Misato's quizzical expression, Ritsuko explained, "One could deduce a lot about NERV's layout and priorities through our recovery efforts."

Misato paled. "Oh shit. The point wasn't to turn out the lights, it was to watch us turn them on again."

"That is my assessment, yes. Whoever did this now knows a lot more about NERV than they did before. Possibly," Ritsuko amended, "because whoever did this also knew exactly where to hit us." She poured herself another cup of coffee. She had not slept in over a day. "We ran a recovery program that was full of disinformation. They don't know everything about us."

 _That makes two of us,_ Misato thought to herself. She might not know much about computers and still got lost in NERV's labyrinth, but she had noticed a few anomalies on Maya's laptop, and the day before when she, Kaji and the three pilots had finally made it to Central Dogma. NERV used a lot of power, but a good portion of that power was diverted to chambers below even Central Dogma. There was something down there that was drawing a great deal of energy; Misato was not yet sure she wanted to know what that something was. "This is bad," she mused.

"It sure is," Maya agreed. "The first real damage to NERV wasn't done by an Angel. It was done by a human being. By one of us."

Misato caught the tone in Maya's voice. "You mean someone at NERV?"

"I'm already running background checks on the entire staff. Again. You're not under suspicion, of course," Ritsuko assured her.

"Well, duh," Misato growled. "When I wasn't on the bridge with you, monitoring the synch test, I was stuck in that frigging elevator with Kaji." Mentally, she squashed those memories. Then she realized Ritsuko was looking at her over the lip of her coffee cup. "Ritsuko…"

"Maya, would you excuse us for a moment?" Ritsuko asked.

"Of course, Doctor." Maya dutifully got up, left the office, and shut the steel door behind her.

The two women faced each other for a long moment. "It can't be Kaji," Misato half-whispered. "He was with me the whole time."

"He was with you in the elevator before the power went out. Where was he before that?"

"Rits…"

"Misato," Ritsuko sighed, "I like Kaji too. I don't want to think it was him. But trapping himself in the elevator with you? That could be misdirection. And we might be dealing with more than one person. In fact, we almost certainly are."

Misato thought for a moment. Who was new to NERV, besides Ryoji Kaji? "It can't be Asuka. Or Riana."

"Neither one. Asuka has the computer skills, but she doesn't have a motive. Riana would be a suspect, but she _doesn't_ have the computer skills, and unless she's a lot stronger than she looks, or her… _magic…_ " Ritsuko spit the word out "…allows her to be in two places at once, she did not cut the cables." She took a drink of the coffee. "It's none of the pilots, and none of the bridge crew. It may not have been Kaji. In the end, it doesn't really matter who did the actual sabotage." Ritsuko set the cup down and once more looked directly at Misato. "It was who ordered it."

* * *

 _Aboard JDS_ Amagiri

 _Ross Sea (formerly Ross Ice Shelf), Antarctica_

 _17 November 2016_

Gendo Ikari gazed out over a sea of blood.

What had been the once-vast, ice-locked continent of Antarctica was now gone, replaced by an ocean colored deep red, only broken by spires of salt. As they went north, the red waters would eventually turn a more natural color, to the blues and greens of ocean. None of the scientists in the world could explain why the Antarctic Ocean was now the color it was; some theories held that it was caused by the massive die-off of everything in and around Antarctica when the meteor struck at Second Impact. Part of that was true, Gendo reflected; everything around them, down to microbes, was indeed dead. What the scientists were wrong about was the why and the how.

Kozo Fuyutsuki walked to stand next to Gendo on the _Amagiri's_ bridge. Behind them was a silent crew and a captain who knew better than to ask questions. Around them was a naval task force of six ships: five destroyers, including the _Amagiri,_ drawn from the Japanese Naval Self-Defense Force and the United States Navy, and a carrier, _Gerald Ford,_ also from the latter. Aboard the _Ford_ was the reason why Gendo, Fuyutsuki, and almost a thousand sailors had come to this dead place. It was half the length of the carrier's huge flight deck, covered in thick white canvas, and tied down securely. The sailors who asked about it were told not to ask about it.

"Good morning, Professor," Gendo said. He did not look at Fuyutsuki.

"Good morning." Fuyutsuki took in the view, such as it was. "The real Dead Sea. Pillars of salt, red waters, a shattered sky." Above them the clouds were gray and ominous. "Welcome to hell."

Gendo smiled a little. There were times he appreciated the former professor's dry humor. "But here we mortals be, safe and generally sound."

"Because of science?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"Science is humanity's power, Professor."

Fuyutsuki shook his head. "Ikari," he said softly, "that sort of arrogance is what created this place."

"On the contrary," Gendo replied, in the same tone of voice, "it washed away humanity's original sin."

"I would prefer a world," Fuyutsuki replied, "where people still lived, no matter how stained with sin."

Gendo opened his mouth to reply, but a sailor was walking towards them. The man saluted, though technically Gendo held no rank in the JNSDF, and handed him a message form. "This came in for you, sir," the sailor reported. "Over the VLF. In the clear."

Gendo's eyebrows beetled together. "From NERV?"

"No sir. It appears to have come from the United States. We verified it with the crew of the _Ford—_ they picked up the same message. It was in English, but it appears to be some sort of code. It was addressed directly to you, but it's unsigned."

Gendo gave the sailor a short nod, which he correctly took as a dismissal, then read the message. It did not take long; it was only one line. Gendo gave a soft grunt, almost a chuckle. The thin smile returned as he handed it to Fuyutsuki. "It seems our mystery guest has revealed themselves, Professor."

Fuyutsuki scanned it. It read: _Your leash has been pulled, Gendo Ikari. I remind you who is now holding it._

The vice-commander looked up at Gendo. "You know who this is?"

"Oh, yes. It was rather nice of her to confirm who was behind our power outage back home." Gendo took the message, folded it neatly, and placed it in his coat pocket. "It seems Rissa Arashikaze is not pleased with us—"

He was interrupted by another sailor, who ran onto the bridge. Breathlessly, he handed a message to the captain. The captain glanced at it, stood up from his chair, and walked briskly to Gendo. He did not salute. "Commander, new message, this one from NERV Headquarters, confirmed." His words were clipped and proper, but Fuyutsuki could see the nervousness behind the captain's eyes. He read from the message form. "'Angel sighted over the eastern Pacific Ocean by Cocos Island Tracking Station at 0900 Hours, Japan time. Altitude 2108 kilometers, speed approximately Mach 4, course heading for Tokyo-3. NERV has codenamed the Angel Sahaquiel." The captain stumbled over the name, unused to the unusual pronunciation.

"Thank…thank you, Captain." Gendo turned away from the _Amagiri's_ captain. "Proceed on present course. There is nothing we can do."

The captain glanced from Gendo to Fuyutsuki and back, then turned and resumed his chair. There really was nothing the task force could do; if Sahaquiel was to be stopped, it would be at Tokyo-3 somehow.

Fuyutsuki had noticed Gendo's politeness, automatic—and not like him. Gendo was usually just polite enough, and sometimes not even then; the man seemed to enjoy discomfiting people, especially people who thought they had power, as the _Amagiri's_ captain did. Then Fuyutsuki noticed Gendo's expression, hid from the captain and everyone else, but his old mentor. It was one Fuyutsuki had not seen in some time.

Gendo was in shock.

"Ikari," Fuyutsuki hissed, too low for anyone but the Commander to hear. "Ikari! What is it?"

Gendo got control of himself, reasserted the iron control he almost always maintained. "The Angel, Professor. Don't you understand?" He turned to the vice-commander, staring at the older man over the tops of his glasses. "It's the wrong one. It's the wrong _time._ Sahaquiel is not supposed to be here yet."

Fuyutsuki remembered his own reading of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He took a deep breath. "Sahaquiel is the tenth Angel. We should be on the eighth."

"Correct. It should be Sandalphon."

Fuyutsuki managed to keep his composure. Up to this point, the Dead Sea Scrolls had accurately predicted each Angel's appearance and nature. The codenames were given by NERV supposedly randomly, after angels in Kabbalic tradition; only Gendo and Fuyutsuki were left of those who knew the truth. If the Dead Sea Scrolls were wrong on the order of Angels, what else was it wrong about? "Then the Scrolls…what is it, Ikari?" he repeated. "What is the meaning?"

Gendo said only three words, three that frightened the old professor more than any others had since the death of Yui Ikari: "I don't know."


	6. Get Ready For This

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: I was going to have the big fight with Sahaquiel in this chapter, but it started getting too long, so I'm splitting it into two chapters._

 _BTW, I do read and greatly appreciate the feedback. It's just hard for me to respond to anonymous/guest reviews._

 _Central Dogma, The Geofront_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _7 November 2016_

Riana Arashikaze was the last into the girls' locker room, but she was already out of her school uniform shirt before she even crossed the door's threshold. Her skirt was off by the time she reached her locker, her shoes were kicked into the locker the moment she got it open, and her underwear was off before she even got to her socks. Rei and Asuka were still at the skirt stage. Asuka spared her a withering glance. "Somebody's excited."

"Heck yeah," Riana answered. She forced a grin on her face. In reality, she was not so much excited as she was nervous. Or scared. Or both. Riana was not sure. Her fingers shook as she peeled off her socks and tossed them into the pile of clothes that she then stuffed into the locker. She shut the locker, then remembered her plugsuit was still inside. Asuka rolled her eyes. "I guess you're making progress," she remarked dryly. "Used to be you'd go hide on the other side to change. Now you're just naked in front of both of us."

Riana rammed one leg and then the other into the plugsuit. "So? Rei doesn't care. Why should you?"

Asuka began to put on her own plugsuit, more slowly and methodically. "I guess you've lost all that convent training, Sister Riana. Vow of modesty and all that." Rei was still getting her underwear off and studiously ignoring both of them.

Riana pressed the button and the plugsuit hissed as it conformed to her skin. "Vow of chastity, Asuka. Vow of chastity."

"You would know _all_ about that."

Riana threw her a nasty look. "And you _wouldn't_."

"And what the hell do you mean by that?" Asuka's plugsuit sealed itself with the same hiss.

"You and Shinji seem sweet on each other!" Riana could not stop herself. "One more minute in that access corridor and you two would've been _fucking!_ " Cheeks burning, she spun on one heel and stalked out of the locker room, leaving a speechless Asuka in her wake. Rei glanced at Asuka, then resumed putting on her plugsuit.

* * *

Riana cursed herself as she went down the corridor towards the large briefing room. _Why the hell did I lash out like that? Yeah, Asuka's been grumpy as hell today, but that's nothing new. She snapped at Rei, too. She'll probably rip Shinji's head off in the briefing. No reason for me to be bitchy too._ Riana sighed. _No, Riana, you know the damn reason. You're jealous._

Riana had spent most of the previous day brooding. The scene in the corridor haunted her: Shinji and Asuka, a second away from a kiss. If the power had not come on and interrupted them, they would have finished…unless Riana had interrupted them herself. She wished she had, on some level. The scene was a pleasant fantasy: she would rush into the corridor and shove them apart, and either slap Asuka for being a slut, or kiss Shinji herself. Riana almost convinced herself that she would have done exactly that, but then doubted it; she would have just hid behind the corner, or slunk off, Riana had thought morosely.

That brought up why she cared anyway. Shinji was no Adonis; Riana thought that Ryoji Kaji and even Toji Suzuhara were more attractive. Shinji was plain, with less muscle tone than Riana possessed. When viewed through that lens, romantic and erotic fantasies tended to fade. Logically, Riana decided that the only reason that she felt any attraction at all to Shinji Ikari was because she felt sorry for him and wanted to cheer him up, and that they worked together. Both reasons also applied to Rei, but Riana was not at all attracted to Rei. Pity was not the basis for a healthy relationship; even Riana, with her somewhat limited knowledge of the subject, knew that.

By the next morning, after tossing and turning most of the night, Riana came to a conclusion: she was jealous of Asuka, but only because Asuka seemed to get everything. She got the praise, she got the acclamation, she got every male in a fifty mile radius to stare at her, and now she'd even gotten Shinji. The hatred that Riana had felt for Asuka, which had been tamped down after the fight with Israfel, was back with a vengeance, and that was why she came into NERV today with a chip the size of a sequoia on her shoulder.

At least that was what Riana was telling herself by the time she reached the briefing room.

Misato was waiting when she got there. There was a map of Tokyo-3 on the floor. Misato glanced up as Riana walked in. " _Konnichi wa._ "

"Yep," Riana replied mulishly in English, then mentally kicked herself. It was mission time; everything else had to be put aside. "Sorry, Misato-san," she said in Japanese. "Having a rough day."

"It's about to get rougher," Misato informed her. "Hello, Shinji." The boy walked into the briefing room. Riana could not bring herself to look at him. She wanted to yell at him, which was stupid. _You're stupid!_ she yelled at herself instead, and Riana forced herself to meet Shinji's eyes. He hesitantly smiled. She turned away. _Fuck._ It was like being angry at a puppy.

Rei and Asuka arrived a moment later, and Asuka noticeably distanced herself from everyone. If Misato noticed the sudden tension in the room, she gave no hint of it. "We don't have a lot of time, so we'll make this quick," Misato began. She snapped on a projector. "This was taken from our space tracking station on Cocos Island less than an hour ago. Meet the newest Angel—Sahaquiel."

The object was a black sphere, crisscrossed by white eyelike shapes. Misato advanced the projector, and next was a video. It was obviously taken from a satellite, and showed the same dark sphere. As they watched, several small satellites closed in and fired missiles at the object. All detonated against the now familiar hexagonal pattern of an AT Field. "Those are N2 mines, used in sequence," Misato told them. "Remember we used just one N2 mine on Israfel and crippled it. Here we've used about fifteen of them, with the equivalent force of 350 kilotons each, and we didn't even slow it down."

Next she showed three images, also from satellites. All three showed coincentric circles, which expanded as the images advanced. "Looks like ripples," Riana remarked.

"That's because that's what they are. This thing is detaching parts of itself and dropping them. When they hit the ocean, they're going really fast—hypersonically fast, according to Rit—Dr. Akagi. Surf's going to be up the next few days, but it doesn't really matter, because the damn thing is ranging in on us." Misato pointed to the images. "It's correcting its error every time it comes around in orbit. The last hit was about a hundred kilometers from here. It's also steadily losing altitude with each orbit, so the next pass it's going to hit Tokyo-3."

"Can it hit us down here?" Shinji asked.

"Not with one of its pieces. So the next pass? It's probably going to drop its entire mass on top of us." Misato switched off the projector and pointed to the map. "Sahaquiel is about half a kilometer across, but when it drops straight down, it'll hit with the mass of a thirty-megaton nuclear bomb. Not only will that wipe out Tokyo-3, it'll gouge NERV right out of the ground."

Riana blanched. "And that's the ball game."

"Afraid so. Now of course, we have a plan." Misato used a pointer on the map, and labels showing EVA-00, 01, and 02 appeared in a triangle pattern. "Rei, you'll be on the north side, near the school. Shinji, you're in the east, near Hakone. Asuka, you've got the west, by Rei and Riana's apartment complex."

Riana suppressed a sigh. _Reserve duty for me. Of course. Well…it was already a shitty day._

"Now, we don't have an exact impact point, so you're being spread out to cover the impact radius."

"The radius is _this_ large?" Asuka exclaimed.

"Unfortunately. This is the best Magi can come up with. Once we confirm the exact impact point—when Sahaquiel starts its terminal dive—then all three Evas will converge on that point, with your AT Fields focused above you at maximum." Misato looked at them. "You're going to have to catch it."

" _Catch_ it?" Asuka shrilled. "With _what?"_

"Your Evas have hands, right?" Misato shot back. "With your AT Fields projecting at full strength, like I said, you'll catch it."

"That's insane!"

"You have a better idea?" Misato asked. Asuka did not respond.

Riana raised a hand. "I have a feeling I know the answer to this, but where do I come in? Or do I?"

Misato smiled with gallows humor. "Oh, you do. Asuka, if you thought the rest of this plan is crazy, you haven't heard the best part." Misato raised her arms as the Evas would. "The problem is that all three Evas have to keep up their AT Fields. Sahaquiel is not only big, but hyperdense. Now your AT Fields should cancel out the Angel's AT Field, and that should provide an opening…for EVA-03A." Misato pointed the clicker again at the map. In the center of Tokyo-3, EVA-03A's label appeared. "After the other Evas have made the intercept, Riana, you will move immediately to them, get under the Angel, and stab upwards with a sonic glaive. You know what I'm talking about—Asuka used one against Israfel." No one felt like mentioning that the glaive had been ineffective. "Stab for the core. It should penetrate, and the Angel will be killed."

"What happens if it doesn't penetrate?" Riana asked.

"It will." Misato's smile remained.

"And what happens if Sahaquiel blows up, like Israfel did?" Asuka asked. "We'll be okay, but Sister Riana here is going to be toast—literally."

"Nothing to worry about," Misato assured them. "Your AT Fields should protect her, and we've upgraded EVA-03A's armor with a ceramic outer cover. It's designed to reflect heat. We ran the simulation and it worked just fine." Riana thought to herself that Misato was not a very good poker player.

"So let me get this straight," Asuka said. "For the record. We run out to where this thing is going to land, we _catch_ it like a pop fly to deep center, use our AT Fields to keep it from hitting, and then Riana runs in and stabs it to death."

"Pretty much, yeah," Misato answered.

There was silence for a few moments as everyone processed it. "I love this plan!" Riana suddenly burst out. "I'm happy to be a part of it! When do we leave?"

"Ha ha," Misato snapped. "Like I told Asuka, if you have a better plan, now's the time."

"Misato," Asuka said, "if this works, you're buying us dinner. All of us. Even Sister Riana, assuming she's not in the burn ward."

"Sure."

" _Steak_ dinner."

Misato nodded. "Got it. Steak. You got it." The advantage to that bet, Riana reflected inwardly, was that if the plan did not work, Misato would not have to buy anyone steak dinners, or anything else. _I guess that will solve my relationship problems too. Win-win._

"Any questions?" Misato asked. There were none. "Okay then. We've got about 45 minutes to get in position, so let's get to it. Good luck."

"And may the Force be with you," Riana said under her breath.

* * *

EVA-00 was in a separate holding bay, so Rei did not ride with the three of them as they got on the elevator. The girl had said nothing since the four of them had arrived at NERV. To Riana, Rei's silence was unnerving. She could not figure out if Rei was contemptuous of the others, or simply had nothing to contribute to the conversation. Of course she would do whatever was ordered of her, without question; Riana wished she could be like Rei. It was very samurai.

Shinji's voice brought Riana out of her thoughts about Rei. "Asuka."

"What?"

Riana had a sudden, nauseous feeling that Shinji was going to say something romantic, but instead he asked, "Why do you do it? Why do you pilot an Eva?"

Asuka snorted. "To exhibit my talent to the world, of course." Riana rolled her eyes; Asuka even threw in a hair toss at the end of the sentence.

"You mean…to prove you exist?"

The sudden philosophy threw Asuka off for a moment, but only for a moment. "Yeah, something like that." She paused. "You ask Rei?"

"I've asked Ayanami before." Shinji did not elaborate on what Rei had told him.

Asuka smirked. "My, how… _intimate_ the two of you are." She glanced sidelong at Riana, whose face turned red with suppressed, confused rage.

"It's not like that!" Shinji protested.

"Why do you pilot, Shinji?" Riana quickly asked, because it was obvious Asuka was about to bait her even more—and there was no question in Riana's mind that she would not be able to resist biting the lure.

The question took him off guard. Asuka switched her interest to him. "That's actually a good question, Shinji. Why _do_ you pilot? You hate the Evas."

He hesitated, then replied, "I…I don't know."

"You don't _know?_ " Asuka giggled. "What are you, stupid?"

Shinji looked at the floor. "Maybe I am."

"You really are." Asuka turned to Riana. "I guess that leaves you, Sister Riana. Why do you pilot an Eva—sort of one, anyway?"

"Me?" Riana laughed. "I'm just a girl who's a heroine for fun."

Asuka shook her head as they reached the Eva bay. "Yeah, well…you'd better be One Punch Girl today, Riana. Because if you're not, we're all dead."


	7. United We Stand

_Tokyo-3_

 _7 November 2016_

Riana drummed her fingers on the throttles of EVA-03A. _The fate of the world is in the hands of a depressed boy, a stuck-up girl, a girl who doesn't care about anything, and…whatever the hell I am. And I'm bored._

Getting in the Eva was down to a science now. The choking sensation and coppery taste of the LCL was so routine, as was puking afterwards, that it was no longer worth commenting on. Of course, Riana supposed, that was the whole point of training: you got used to it. Still, it seemed rather strange to be sitting in one of the most powerful machines ever made by mankind, getting ready to go up against Something Man Was Not Meant to Know, using a plan that even the person who made it thought was desperate…and yet she was bored.

 _Wonder if this is how Dad or Mom ever felt, going to one of their super-secret missions? Were they ever bored, even knowing they might not come back? Was Dad bored waiting for the tsunami to hit Seattle, the one that would kill him? Better yet…does Commander Ikari ever get bored? Does Dr. Akagi? I bet Misato does; that's why she drinks so much. I wonder if Rei gets bored. Maybe she's_ always _bored. Wonder if Sahaquiel is bored, waiting to make his orbit so he can drop down on us. Is Sahaquiel a he? Maybe it's a she. Guess I shouldn't assume its gender. What the hell_ do _the Angels want that's in Tokyo-3? Maybe they want to mate with one of the Evas. Maybe their world needs females! Maybe their world needs_ males. _In that case, Shinj's in trouble._ Riana caught herself grinning, and knew that Misato, Ritsuko and the rest could see her doing so. _Sure hope these A10 clips can't pick up my thoughts. They're going to think I've lost it for sure._

Before Riana's thoughts could run away any further, Hyuga's shout blasted through the radio. "We've got visual! It's entered the atmosphere…altitude 25 kilometers and falling!" Riana almost asked for Sahaquiel's velocity, but then decided she probably did not want to know. Something that big was going to accelerate as it fell.

"That's it; it's here!" Misato exclaimed. "Magi estimates it'll come down in Area B2—Shinji, you're on point and closest! Run until you make visual contact, and the rest is up to you! All Evas, _start!"_

Ibuki was a little more calm. "External power supply purged on EVA-00, 01, and 02." That would free the other Evas from their bulky power cable, Riana knew, but it would also leave them with only five minutes of power. EVA-03A, with its nuclear reactor, did not have that problem, but she also wasn't as fast.

Riana projected the map onto her heads-up display and stepped down hard on both pedals. EVA-03A gave a brief whine of protest and then accelerated. "Misato, do I need to worry about property damage?" She didn't feel like using callsigns.

"Hell, no!" Misato said. "Everyone's been evacuated, and for anyone who hasn't, it's just too bad!"

"Got it!" With EVA-03A at full speed, it was now tearing down electrical wires and crushing the odd car or two. She rounded a corner and one of the Eva's elbows took the awning off a row of apartments.

"Nine kilometers up!" Aoba called out.

 _I should be able to see it by now…there._ Riana took her eyes off the street in front of her just for a moment to glance upwards, knowing her Eva would as well. There was no mistaking it: though the Angel looked like a mass of white hexagons, it was glowing with heat from reentry, leaving a thick contrail as it came down; she could see shockwaves spreading from the contrail as it burst the sound barrier several times, and the hexagons began falling away and dissipating. _Damn, it's fast! This is going to be close!_

Without warning, a car fell from the sky right in front of her. There was no avoiding it; it crumpled beneath the foot of her Eva. Anyone in it would have been dead from the impact of the landing: it had been thrown for half a kilometer. Looking to her right, Riana could see why. _That's Asuka. She's got to be doing seventy miles an hour, if not more. Didn't think something that big could move that fast._ She took a quick second to pat the instrument panel. "Come on, buddy! Let's show them what we can do!"

Despite her encouragement, EVA-03A did not accelerate any faster than it already was going. "Two kilometers!" Aoba shouted.

"AT Field at maximum!" That was Shinji, Riana knew, and she wanted to cheer. If he was raising his AT Field to that strength, he was in position. Sure enough, a second later, the eastern horizon lit up in a weird shade of orange, and another shockwave burst through, enough to shake her Eva when it hit. Another glance: Sahaquiel had shed the hexagon heat shield and now showed its true face. It was now a giant eye, with huge yellow armlike extensions ending in some sort of hands, surmounted by more eyes. She swallowed nervously at the sight—it had to be a mile across. Still, just as Israfel had, at first, it looked more comical than frightening. Then it disappeared from view behind a row of buildings, and Riana knew with horrible certainty that Sahaquiel had reached the earth.

"He caught it!" Misato yelled. Riana heard Shinji grunting with exertion over the open channel. The biofeedback from the Eva was transmitting itself back to the pilot; it would be like he was holding several hundred pounds over his head. "Asuka! Rei! Hurry!"

"Unit-02, AT Field to maximum!" Rei's voice was high and shrill, but not panicked; it was still the highest note Riana had ever heard the girl hit.

"No shit!" Asuka shot back. The glow on the horizon brightened, enough to replace the sun, as all three AT Fields strained under the force. "Riana, where the hell are you!"

"Give me a minute!" she yelled back. "I'm almost there!"

"We don't _have_ a minute!" Asuka's voice was tight with stress, and Riana could hear Shinji almost at the verge of a scream with the weight pressing down on him.

Riana pushed the sticks down, trying to cut down on weight. She was getting closer: she could see the Angel now, she was almost beneath it, but it was not going to be enough, she was going to be too late— _no!_ she shouted to herself, _Not going to be late! God, powers, whatever, give me the time! Please, God, please, or everyone's going to die and it's going to be my fault!_

Now she was beneath its outstretched arm, and she could feel the immense weight above her; the other three Evas were being pressed down into the earth. Their combined AT Fields were just barely holding the Angel, and she could feel them buffet EVA-03A, costing her time she didn't have.

Then Riana saw her chance. Keeping the pedals down until her feet ached, she threw herself backwards in the seat, with the knowledge that it would throw off EVA-03A's center of balance. The mecha fell backwards, but at full speed: the result was a rather nifty baseball slide. The glaive was already out of its sheath on her back and in position, and she stopped right in position—flat on her back, but in position.

For half a second, she stared at the Angel in front of her. It stared back, in a mesmerizing shimmer of every color in the spectrum; in the center was a pupil of blood red. Riana did not feel fear, but rather awe, even envy at the strange beauty of the thing.

To her surprise, it was Shinji that gave the order. "Do it! _Now!"_

Using one hand each, all that they could spare, Rei and Asuka's Evas seemed to grasp a corner of Sahaquiel's AT Field and pulled in opposite directions. With an audible tear, the field was torn back—not much, but just enough. The shimmer was gone; now there was just the naked eye. Riana figured it must be her imagination, but the pupil seemed to dilate in fear. She supposed she should say something heroic or defiant, a curse or something pithy like the action heroes in the movies, but all she could think to mutter was a soft "sorry" as she jammed the glaive upwards. There was the briefest bit of resistance, a shower of sparks, and then she felt the glaive sink home, halfway up the shaft. She stood as she did so, putting the Eva's weight behind the thrust, just as her grandmother had taught her in spear training.

Sahaquiel turned black, starting from the pupil, which went empty before it turned colors. In her peripheral vision, she could see the Angel dying, its outstretched, winglike hands falling to the earth. It began to drape around the Eva's AT Fields, and abruptly she remembered Asuka's words about an explosion.

* * *

So did Misato, watching from Central Dogma. From cameras placed around the city, they watched as Sahaquiel's AT Field shivered and died, and the Angel slowly fell down around them. The Evas were cut off from view, and all of them braced for the explosion that had to be coming.

The Angel did not explode, however. It died with a whimper rather than a bang. The wings seemed to shrivel up, then melted, until the entire thing simply fell apart in a tidal wave of blood. A crosslike shape rose from what had been the center, surrounded by rainbows.

The blood washed towards and through Tokyo-3, flooding the streets of the eastern district and into the bay, turning the water an ugly shade of crimson. The city would survive; there would just be a mess to clean up, as usual. In the center of the deluge, however, was the Evas.

Misato shook herself. They had won. Impossibly, they had won. Again. "Evas…" She wet her lips. "Evas, check in."

Rei checked in first. "EVA-00. Systems nominal."

"EVA-02. I'm good," Asuka said.

There was a slight pause. "EVA-01 here. I'm okay," Shinji reported. "Everything looks fine."

When Riana didn't respond, Misato radioed again. "EVA-03A, come in." Another lengthy pause. "EVA-03A, come in." Nothing. "Evas, can you see Riana, what is the condition of EVA-03A—"

Riana's voice finally came in, crackling with static. "Whoa! That was _cool!"_


	8. Broken Pieces

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Again, sorry about the long delay in updating. I had to move to a new place, and wanted to work a little more on my Battletech story. I made up for it (hopefully) with a longer chapter this time._

 _Ramen-a-Go-Go_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _7 November 2016_

It wasn't a steak dinner: it was ramen, and cheap takeout ramen at that. Steak had been the deal, but even Asuka could not bring herself to impoverish Misato for the month. It was the five of them: Shinji, Asuka, Riana, Misato and even Rei, who ordered a bowl of garlic ramen with no meat. Riana, for herself, ordered a huge bowl of Kobe beef ramen, and no one begrudged her the expense. "You're going to get fat," was Asuka's only remark.

"Don't care," Riana replied, and slurped her ramen as loudly as possible.

Asuka rolled her eyes. She took a more sedate sip of ramen, and noticed Shinji was smiling, with a faraway expression. "What're you so happy about, Baka Shinji?"

"Other than the fact that we're not dead?" Riana remarked between slurps.

Shinji did not reply to Asuka, but turned instead to Misato, who was looking a bit forlornly at her checkbook. "Misato-san?"

"What?" Misato put away the checkbook; there was no point in crying about it.

"When I heard my father earlier…I think I finally understood what it's like to feel happy, when you're praised." Shinji glanced at Asuka. "And I also realized that, maybe, I pilot the Eva because…because I wanted to hear those words from him."

Asuka laughed. "You're piloting for something like _that?_ You really are stupid!"

Riana was tempted to dump her steaming hot ramen into Asuka's lap, but it was too good and she was too hungry. Instead, she asked Shinji, "What did your dad say?"

Shinji smiled. "He said…'good work.'" He looked down into his ramen. "You're right, Asuka; it's really stupid…but it made me feel good."

Riana reached behind Asuka and slapped Shinji on the shoulder. "Really? That's great, Shinji!" She motioned at the proprietor of the ramen shop. "Sir! May we have some tea?" When their cups had been filled, Riana stood and raised her cup. "A toast! A toast to…well, all of us, but Shinji especially!"

Shinji raised his cup. Misato laughed with the sheer absurdity of it, and raised hers. Rei dabbed at her lips and raised hers; Riana thought there might be the ghost of a smile there. Asuka shook her head, but she raised her cup as well. " _Kampai,"_ she formally intoned.

" _Kampai!"_ They all drank their tea. Riana was about to call for another toast, but Asuka grabbed the hem of her uniform skirt and dragged her back to her seat. "What's wrong with you, Sister Riana? I'd almost say you were drunk, but not even Misato's so far gone to allow underage drinking."

"Not yet, anyway," Misato remarked.

"Me?" Riana threw Asuka a mad grin. "I'm just happy to be alive, Asuka! You know, happy? As in glad, as in overjoyed, as in having fun? I think even Rei is happy!" Asuka could not resist looking at Rei, who shrugged; it was possible. "I _know_ Shinji is. And if we get a few beers into Misato, she'll be _really_ happy!"

"Hey!" Misato protested.

"Well, I'm happy to be alive too," Asuka said, "but I'm not acting like a lunatic."

Riana wasn't going to let Asuka bring her down. "Well, maybe I'm just happy that I'm sitting here eating ramen with you fine people, and you too, Asuka, and not lying comatose in a hospital room. That's got to be worth something, right?"

"It certainly is." They turned at the new voice, whose owner stepped forward and tossed a credit card on the counter. "Relax, Major; I've got the bill."

" _Gramma!"_ Riana leapt from her stool and nearly speared Rissa Arashikaze. The older, shorter woman staggered and somehow kept her feet. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Where did you come from? When did you get into town?"

"A few days—" Before Rissa could finish, Riana turned to Misato and the other pilots. "Everyone, this is my grandmother, Rissa!"

The pilots, Misato and Rissa exchanged bows and handshakes. Rissa had something kind to say to each of them, but somewhat subdued, as a commanding officer would compliment some mildly talented subordinates. Only Asuka got a second glance on introduction. "Soryu?" Rissa asked. At Asuka's nod, Rissa aped the motion. "I knew a Soryu once. Interesting man, good operator. Deserved better." Before Asuka could reply, Rissa turned to Misato. "I hate to disrupt the festival my granddaughter is leading here, but may I borrow her for a little while, Major Katsuragi? I have a car; I'll drive her home."

"Sure, er…Rissa-san?" Misato made it a question. There was something in Rissa Arashikaze's bearing that marked her as military, and it seemed appropriate to address her by her rank.

Rissa seemed to sense it. "Lieutenant Colonel Arashikaze, if you like, Major." She made an elaborate gesture towards her car for Riana, then bowed to them in farewell. Riana took one last, gigantic slurp of ramen, winked at Shinji, and followed her grandmother to the car.

* * *

It was a short drive, and Riana literally skipped down the breezeway to her apartment. Once inside, she breathlessly showed Rissa around. It was still fairly spartan, but a few travel posters Riana had begged, borrowed or stolen from school, along with some fresh flowers in a glass vase Kazuko Bishamon dropped off a few days before, gave the room some color. "Coffee?" she offered to Rissa.

"Actually, I was thinking something a bit…stronger." Rissa reached into her long overcoat and withdrew a bottle of clear liquid.

"Sake? Really, Gramma."

"Well, it's tradition to do something to commemorate the occasion of surviving your first battle." Riana got her most clean glasses, and, after opening the bottle, Rissa splashed a small amount of the sake into them. "It's supposed to be served warm, but…" She raised her glass to her granddaughter. " _Kampai."_

 _"Kampai."_ Riana took a hesitant sip. She expected it to be strong, but it did not give much of a kick. It tasted like rice—which, she figured, it was supposed to, after all. Rissa knocked her glass back and poured another shot. This one she drank a little more sedately.

They sat in silence for several minutes, Rissa in the room's single chair, Riana on her bed. Finally Rissa set aside her empty glass. Riana still had a little left in hers. "So," Rissa said into the quiet, "what was it like…fighting the Angels?"

Riana smiled. She had been waiting for this moment. Something she finally shared in common with her grandmother. "It was fun."

" _Fun?"_ Rissa's eyebrows went up.

"I know, I know…it's supposed to be scary." She hesitated. "Okay, it _was_ scary. I did wet my plugsuit after all. But other than being knocked into a coma for three days, it wasn't all that bad." Riana drained the rest of the sake. It wasn't all that good, and she didn't think she should ask for more in any case. "Was it like that for you, Gramma? The first time?"

Rissa's eyes went distant. "The first time…no. Not quite. But things were different. I was fighting a human being, not something like an Angel."

"What happened the first time? If you don't mind me asking."

"There was a lot of blood and screaming." Rissa chuckled. "Now that I think about it, it wasn't unlike losing my virginity."

Riana wasn't sure if she should laugh or not. "Then I guess it wasn't fun."

Rissa shrugged. "Riana, battle can be fun. It can be very fun. Your adrenaline gets pumping, you see your enemy go down, and you realize you won. It's just like watching your team win a football game, or that silly wrestling you used to watch. That's why people enjoy sports. The Sioux used to call lacrosse the 'little brother of war.' It gives the same sort of adrenaline rush as combat. People can get addicted to combat. You can get hooked on that adrenaline."

Riana looked down into her glass. She realized that she felt strangely let down by the fight with Sahaquiel. It lasted so short of a time. "Maybe that's happening to me, Gramma. I can't wait until our next fight."

"Mm. Like I said, it's a little different with me. Angels don't flop on the ground with their guts torn out, screaming for their mothers. You don't capture them and watch them literally shit themselves at the thought of being a prisoner." Rissa glanced at the bottle, then poured herself another glass. "The movies show us something different. The hero gets a bullet through the arm, grits his teeth, slaps a bandage on, and keeps going, and the credits roll and everything's fine. They don't show the fact that he might not use that arm again, because the muscles and nerves are all torn to shit. They don't show the nights staring at nothing for hours, or curled up in a ball on a hospital bed. Not wounded, but broken in spirit." Rissa drank down half her glass. "I've seen that, Riana. Too many goddamn times, I've seen that."

Riana hesitated, then reached out and poured herself a little more sake. "You think that's going to happen to me?"

"It could." She drank the rest of the glass. "Riana, I'm sorry. I never should've allowed you to do this. I should've threatened to kill Gendo if he didn't stay away from you. It was wrong. I was wrong, because I thought I could control this. I threatened Gendo, made him take you on, thinking I could control this. I was a fool."

Riana could not believe what she was hearing. This was not at all how she thought this conversation would go. "I'm not leaving, Gramma."

"Really." Rissa leaned back in the chair. "You mean to tell me that, if I ordered you out of Tokyo-3, you wouldn't go."

"No, of course not. That's a silly question, Gramma." Before Rissa could say something, Riana plowed on. "I busted my ass to become an Eva pilot. My Eva's nowhere near as advanced as the others, but that just means I have to work harder. And I like the work, Gramma! I really do. It's tough, but I like it.

"And I have friends now. Toji, and Kensuke, and Hikari and Shinji and Rei. Maybe even Asuka…hard to tell with her. And Misato—Major Katsuragi. And Miss Bishamon, who dropped off those flowers there. And Kaji-san. He's a nice guy."

"I can imagine."

Riana rolled her eyes with a sideways smile. "Not like that, Gramma. He's too old for me. But I never had friends at the convent, Gramma. Not real ones. These…these feel like real ones."

"Friends made in combat are often indeed friends for life. Shared experiences that others can't understand."

Riana spread her hands. "See? That's what I mean."

"And what about Gendo Ikari?"

Riana laughed a little. She remembered her talk with Shinji in this very apartment. "He's an asshole, Gramma." She blushed at using profanity in front of her grandmother, but Rissa only smiled. "But maybe he has to be? Okay, not as much as he is. He treats Shinji like crap. But what NERV is doing, Gramma…it's important. And I'm part of that."

Rissa sighed and got to her feet. She walked over to the window, arms around herself. "I knew this would happen. I _knew_ it."

Riana got up and walked to her side. "Gramma, I'm not being controlled by Commander Ikari or anything, okay? Maybe he's up to something, I don't know, but I don't care! We have to keep the Angels from winning. After we stop them—if we stop them—then maybe we can settle things with the Commander. Until then, we have to keep fighting. It's the right thing to do!"

"And for what?" Rissa whirled on her granddaughter so fast that Riana took a fearful step back. "Riana, I've fought for many flags. Some good, some bad. I've fought in wars where there wasn't a good guy. There was just the least bad guy. I've seen kids like you, and Ikari's son, and Soryu, and Ayanami get torn apart for 'the right thing.' The right thing, Riana, turned out to be some politician's vanity or poll ratings or whose foot was on an imaginary line in the sand. I don't want that to happen to you, dammit! I told you that back at St. Joan's, and I'm telling you that now!"

Riana threw up her hands in frustration. "Then dammit, Gramma, tell me what I'm supposed to do! Just like I told _you_ at St. Joan's, if I don't do it, someone else will have to!" Riana looked at her hands. "I've got the power, Gramma. The magic. Mojo. Whatever you want to call it…I've got it. No one else does. So if God gave me this power, and I believe He did, He doesn't intend for me to waste away, hiding in some convent! If I continue to get better at this, maybe I won't need an AT Field to fight the Angels!"

Rissa poked Riana in the chest. "Knock off the martyr routine. I mean it. You were lucky to survive _both_ your battles, Riana."

Riana refused to give ground. "But I did, Gramma. You mean to tell me you've never gotten lucky?"

"Of course I have!" Rissa's face was getting redder by the minute. They were shouting now. "I only want what is best for you, dammit!"

" _Then let me_ _do this!"_ Riana screamed.

Rissa was silent for a moment, taken aback by the vehemence in Riana's voice. "You don't even know what you're fighting for," she said quietly. "You don't know what Gendo has in his basement." At Riana's quizzical expression, Rissa added, "In what NERV calls Terminal Dogma. Whatever is down there is drawing an incredible amount of power."

"I'm not going to be a spy for you and go look—" Suddenly, the pieces clicked into place in Riana's mind. Her grandmother knew NERV's power outputs. She had been in town a few days. And the magic she had felt near the severed power cables had felt familiar.

Too familiar.

"It was you," Riana breathed, half in shock. "It was _you_."

Rissa raised an eyebrow. "What did I do?"

" _You_ cut the power to NERV!"

Rissa shrugged. "It was me. I needed to know the internal layout, Riana. How NERV works. What kind of powerplant they're sitting on. And where that power is going. There's a lot about NERV that neither Gendo Ikari nor Ritsuko Akagi is telling you."

"But how did you—how did you physically cut the cables—how did you get into NERV-"

"I have my ways. I couldn't do it all through hacking."

Riana knew Rissa was no computer genius, and definitely no hacker. She knew people who were, however. Rissa Arashikaze had not worked alone to knock out NERV's power grid. That meant, Riana reflected, that her grandmother was working either with someone, or for someone. "You could've killed us," she said, almost in a whisper. "You could've killed _me."_

"Killed you? How?" Rissa asked.

"When you cut the power, the Geofront lost life support. We're underground, Gramma. The doors were sealed off automatically when the power went down. That meant the air circulation went off. The oxygen would've run out if NERV hadn't restored power."

"Not my fault Ikari didn't have adequate emergency power reserves."

Riana shook her head. "You don't get it, Gramma! You don't get it at all! It doesn't matter what Commander Ikari did or didn't do! You took a chance with not only _my_ life, but the lives of all my friends. And if you'd killed us, you would've killed all the Eva pilots! The Angels would win!"

For just a moment, Riana saw sudden doubt on her grandmother's face. She opened her mouth, closed it, and then said, "I knew NERV would recover power soon enough." It sounded like a lame excuse, and Riana could tell Rissa thought so too.

"You made a big mistake, Gramma," Riana said, and knew with certainty that she was right.

"Don't talk to me like that," Rissa snapped. "I can still turn you over my knee."

"Then _do_ it, Gramma! _Do it!"_ Riana felt the rage rising, and did not tamp it down. "You've used me as nothing more than a…a fucking _pawn!_ You complain about Gendo doing it, but you're doing the same damn thing! You and whoever you're working for now, Gramma! You're _using me! Everyone_ is using me!"

Rissa was now the one who took a step back. "Riana, I…"

"No, Gramma. I don't want to hear it. You messed with my life, and the lives of people I really care about. You talk about selfish politicians, but you're the one being selfish!"

"It's different—"

"No!" Riana repeated. She pointed towards the door. "Get out, Gramma. Get out."

Rissa's eyes filled with tears. "Riana…"

Riana grabbed the vase full of flowers like a weapon. _"I said get out!"_

Rissa Arashikaze did something she had done to very few people in a long life: she fled. The door slammed shut behind her. For a moment, Riana could hear sobbing, but then there was silence, and the sound of footsteps heading away from her door.

The rage was such that Riana could feel the glass under her hand starting to crack. She set the vase down on the computer desk, snatched up the glasses, and hurled them into the sink. They shattered, pieces of glass flying over the countertops. Riana stomped over to her closet, withdrew a small broom and a pan, and began sweeping up the splinters.

Suddenly, Riana began to cry. She had shouted down her only living relative. She had thrown her grandmother out of her apartment. She had failed to honor her family, the most precious thing in the universe.

Riana Arashikaze had committed a grevious sin, and now she was well and truly alone.

"What have I done? What have I done?" she moaned. Riana dropped to her knees on the cold linoleum floor.

Her eyes fell on her phone, sitting on the computer desk. Maybe she could call Rissa and apologize. The guilt warred with the ugly feeling that she was still right, despite all the anger—her grandmother had indeed almost killed her, _her_ only living relative.

Then she saw the flowers. When she and Rissa entered the apartment, the spray of flowers were alive and beautiful. Now, they were dead, shriveled up, their petals browned and drooping…as if they had aged and died in the last five minutes.

Riana got up and touched the dead petals. They fell off at her touch. "Oh my God," she said. "What have I done?"


	9. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Riana Arashikaze woke screaming.

It took her a few minutes to catch her breath, for her heart rate to slow down and realize that she was safe. When she calmed down, she stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling. It was somewhat familiar, after all: she was back at NERV, in the clinic where she had woken up after her first Angel fight.

And speaking of Angels, Rei Ayanami looked up from her manga (Riana noted in passing that Rei was an Attack on Titan fan, apparently). Her red eyes blinked once. "Are we awake?"

"I don't know," Riana replied. "Are we a mysterious girl with unknown powers and an uncertain fate?"

"Yes, we are," said Rei calmly.

"Then we're awake."

Rei closed the manga and set it aside. "You seemed on the verge of hysteria. Are you all right?"

"I don't know," Riana answered. "I had a _horrible_ dream. Worst one ever." She leaned forward and rubbed her eyes. "Rei, it was just terrible. I dreamed that I was in a fanfic with a slacker author."

Rei nodded sagely. "I have had such a dream myself." She gently touched Riana's shoulder with a pale hand, with more humanity than Riana thought Rei capable of. "But we must be patient. The author is a teacher. There is a new school year beginning. Such things take time, neh? He also was on vacation, enjoying the summer and the strong American dollar."

Riana looked up at Rei. "Rei, you don't understand. Something like this happened before. The author lost interest, and next thing you know, I'm reduced to doing cameos in other fanfics!" She grabbed Rei by the shoulders and shook her hard. "Dammit, Rei! The last cameo I did I was naked in front of Shinji! I mean, I don't _mind_ being naked in front of Shinji, but this was just a throwaway gag in a comedy fic where you and Asuka got shithammered drunk out of some convoluted and overcomplicated scheme of Misato's!" She kept shaking Rei. " _I don't want to be forgotten again, Rei!"_

 _"_ Gthxipsxl," Rei mumbled, now very dizzy. Riana let go of her shoulders and Rei slumped to the floor.

"Great," Riana moaned. "Next thing you know, I'm going to have a dream where I wake up, and I end up being some author avatar making excuses for the jerk's laziness." She fell back in bed and stared at the ceiling again.

 _Sorry, folks. Really have been very busy with school and such. New chapter coming soon...just didn't want anyone to think I was stopping the fic or had lost interest in it. Riana's story is far from complete, and there's going to be a lot more for her to experience and go through._

"Please tell me I'm not going to get torn apart by the mass-production Evas," Riana grumped.

 _Er...no comment._


	10. Am I Not Human?

_AUTHOR'S NOTES: I apologize for taking so long. Besides the stuff mentioned in the last chapter, I hit a bad patch of writer's block over this chapter. I rewrote one scene twice before finally settling on the end product. I think it's turned out all right._

 _This is the last chapter of Book II. Book III will start up as soon as I get the time to do it._

 _The Geofront_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _8 November 2016_

Gendo Ikari read over the passage from the Dead Sea Scrolls one more time, the seventh time. There was no mistake. He was not seeing things.

He sighed and steepled his hands. "Professor?" he asked.

Kozo Fuyutsuki rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "I concur, Ikari. The Scrolls have changed." He tapped on the datapad. "Here, in this passage, it clearly states that the order of the Angels is Israfel, then Sahaquiel, and next Bardiel."

"But we know that to be wrong," Gendo said. "The Angel after Israfel should have been Sandalphon, and Matarael, _then_ Sahaquiel. After Sahaquiel should be Ireul and Leliel, and then Bardiel. After Bardiel the order returns to normal. Before Israfel, the order is still normal. It is only between Israfel and Bardiel. We are missing four Angels."

Fuyutsuki could not resist a soft laugh. "I suppose it will save us time and money not to fight them."

"I fail to see the humor in this, Professor." Gendo sat back in his chair, fingers still steepled. " _We_ remember the 'correct' order of the Angels. Yet the Scrolls have changed. True, we are only looking at scans in a datapad—but somehow I suspect that the originals have changed as well, since the Angels are now out of order."

"Then we are in uncharted territory."

To Fuyutsuki's surprise, Gendo smiled behind his gloves. "Perhaps, Professor, we have _always_ been in uncharted territory, and the Scrolls gave us the illusion that we had a choice in the matter." He stared at the red etchings in his office floor and ceiling. "Man plans…God laughs." His smile widened, almost to a grin. "I apologize, Professor. I _do_ see the humor in this. Especially in what is the deciding factor in the entire scenario."

Fuyusuki crossed his legs in his chair. "I don't follow you."

"Please, Professor. Think." Gendo's voice was patronizing. "The order was the same before Israfel, and it is the same after Bardiel. Assuming Bardiel is the next Angel to appear after Sahaquiel, as the Scrolls now read, what is the common factor here? We are both scientists."

Fuyutsuki thought for a moment, then his eyes widened. "That can't be, Ikari. That makes no sense at all."

"No, Professor, it does not…but as another scientist once said, when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

"But she's just a teenager, a 16-year old girl. I accept this idea that she has some sort of…magical powers, or psychic powers—I have seen too much not to accept the idea of magic, even if it flies in the face of my studies." Fuyutsuki shook his head. "But Riana Arashikaze is at best capable of little more than parlor tricks. We know—we think _—_ that she can slow down time or speed it up by a few seconds, but nothing more than that."

"Correct, Professor—we _think._ But before her arrival, all was proceeding according to the scenario. Now it is not. We must assume that Riana is the changing factor, the snowflake that diverted the path of the avalanche. If that is true, again no matter how improbable, it would suggest that Riana is capable of more than any of us thought possible. Her mere _prescence_ is rewriting history."

Fuyutsuki did not like where this conversation was headed. If there was a hell, either the Christian singular or the Chinese plural, he was certainly going there; Fuyutsuki had sacrificed too much of his own morals and knew too much of the bodies NERV was built on. Yet he still hoped, somewhere, that he retained his humanity, or at least a semblance of it. "She's just a girl," he said quietly. "Perhaps it's not her that's caused this." Even as he said it, he did not believe it.

To his surprise, Gendo nodded. "True. There is another possibility." He leaned forward, picked up his phone, and dialed a number. "Is he still here?" Gendo spoke into the headset. "Excellent. Please send him to my office, immediately." He put the handset back in its cradle and returned his attention to Fuyutsuki. "Events may have begun changing even before Riana's arrival. It may not be the girl, but her grandmother. Her elimination of the old men of SEELE may have done more than rid us of a headache. Especially if my information is correct."

There was a polite chime at the door of the office. "Enter," Gendo ordered. Fuyutsuki turned to see the younger man, dressed in an open shirt, battered slacks, and an unknotted tie. Gendo assumed his customary stance behind the desk, elbows on the desk, face hidden behind the white gloves. "Ryoji Kaji," he intoned. "I'd like you to tell Vice Commander Fuyutsuki what you told me…about who Rissa Arashikaze really is."

* * *

 _Apartment 402, Apartment Complex West_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _8 November 2016_

Rei Ayanami slowly groped back to consciousness. She blinked, looked at the familiar ceiling, then towards the door. There was a tapping on it, hesitant, almost apologetic. Next she looked at the clock on her small chest of drawers. It read 1:17 AM.

Rei got to her feet, thrust them into slippers, then threw on an oversized shirt over her near naked body. She padded to the front door and opened it.

Riana Arashikaze stood on the threshold. Her eyes were puffy and red. She wore pajamas and clutched a stuffed doll of Inuyasha to her chest, and a comforter was thrown over one shoulder. "Rei…I'm really sorry to disturb you this late."

"What is it?" Rei's voice betrayed neither concern nor annoyance.

"I'm really sorry," Riana repeated, "but I can't sleep. I keep having nightmares. Can I…stay here? I won't be any trouble. I'll just sleep on the floor."

"Why?"

"I need to be around someone. I don't want to be alone tonight."

"Why?" Rei said again.

"I had a fight with my grandmother." At the slight widening of Rei's eyes, Riana shook her head. "Not a physical fight or anything…just verbal. We said some ugly things, and she…um…she left. But I can't sleep, Rei. I've got to get some sleep. Please."

Rei looked at Riana, up and down, then gave a quick nod. "All right." She stood aside and Riana shuffled in. As Riana took off her slippers, she glanced around. Rei had evidently mopped at some point since the last time Riana had visited, but it still looked dingy. Still, it was better than the loneliness of Riana's apartment, and the nightmares that plagued her. And the dead flowers that still mocked her, even from the trashcan.

Riana began to toss her comforter on the floor near Rei's bed, but Rei stared at her quizzically. "There is no reason to sleep on the floor," she said, and motioned to the bed.

"But…it's kind of narrow."

"I do not take up very much room."

Riana swallowed nervously, wondered why she was nervous, and obediently rolled out the comforter on Rei's bed. She lay down. The mattress was thin and hard; Rei's spartan lifestyle evidently extended to her sleeping habits. Rei took off her slippers and climbed into bed beside Riana; to Riana's relief, the other girl left the shirt on.

They lay facing away from each other. The warmth of another person in the bed made Riana feel better. She didn't know why, but she was glad of it. "Rei?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you. Really. Thanks so much."

There was silence in the dark room for a moment. "You're welcome," Rei replied.

Later in the night, Rei was awakened again, this time by the sound of sobbing. She turned over and stared at Riana. She was still asleep, but her hands were curled into fists, and tears streamed down her cheeks. Rei hesitated for a moment, then placed her hand on Riana's shoulder. Riana shuddered once, then her muscles relaxed. Rei gently smoothed the comforter, and lay with her arms around the other girl; Riana's breathing slowed, and her tears stopped. It seemed the right thing to do, and oddly comforting.

* * *

 _Tokyo-3 Hilton_

 _Tokyo-3, Japan_

 _8 November 2016_

Rissa Arashikaze watched the sun come up. She had never been a morning person, so seeing the dawn was nothing new; years of deeds done in darkness had irrevocably changed her schedule to a nocturnal one. She leaned against the headboard of the bed and swirled what remained of the whiskey at the bottom of the bottle. It was the largest bottle the hotel store had on sale, and it left a warm burning in her stomach. It did not dull the pain.

Her phone abruptly rang. She stared at it, sitting among the strewn remains of her clothes, read the number, and picked it up. "Arashikaze," she said, only slightly slurring her name.

"Lieutenant Colonel Rissa Arashikaze? This is Major Raizo Hinomura."

"Hinomura-san." The name did not register on her slightly fuzzy memory.

"From Special Operations Branch." When she did not reply, Hinomura added, "From the JSSDF."

Now she remembered. "Oh. Yes. Hello there."

"I'm pleased, ma'am." Hinomura's tone of voice betrayed that he knew that Rissa had been drinking, but was too polite to mention it. "If you're feeling up to it this afternoon, before you leave Tokyo-3, I'd like to meet with you, at the usual location."

Rissa downed the last of the whiskey in one solid gulp. She tossed it in the general direction of the garbage can and missed, though the shatterproof bottle only bounced on the carpet. "Yeah, sure. What about?"

"I'd rather not say over the phone, ma'am."

"Tell me or you can just forget it. Who's gonna tap _my_ fuckin' phone?" She fought down a laugh, a bitter one.

"Very well, ma'am. It's about NERV. Your…um…expertise may be required. Not just this second, but...just in case. Please, Colonel, I don't want to say more. This isn't a secure line."

Rissa looked back out over Tokyo-3, at the rising sun. Her hands clenched at the sheets. "I'll be there, Major."


End file.
